Phulan Rani
Phulan Rani (born 1928) is an Indian painter. Early life and education Phulan Rani was born in 1928 in Amritsar. She belonged to a well to do Sikh family. Her mother died when she was an infant. Her father,Dr Ram Singh was a doctor. She showed a great interest in fine arts, particularly for painting and dancing. Dr Ram Singh encouraged and nourished his daughter with deep care and pride. “My life really began when I started painting at thirteen,” she writes. “I have wonderful memories of that period making pencil drawings on the margins of the school books, attempting to draw sketches of persons and things that interested me.” She did not receive any formal training in art, but her education is in Liberal Arts and Psychology. She sought to watch other painters at work and slowly trained herself often working late into night. She followed the dictates of their inner urge even when in conflict with external necessity. She devoted more of her time to creative pursuits sometimes even at the expense of pressing her academic demands. Personal life Rani married S. Shamsher Singh in 1944. Her husband had a love for fine arts. Together they raised a family and participated in the worlds of arts and letters in Punjab. They ran the New Modern High School in Amritsar, and Phulan taught art as well. Her Father-in-law Kartar Singh Bumra also had an interest in painting. After her marriage when Rani made a painting, Kartar Singh Bumra was much impressed with it and he encouraged her with a cash prize of Rs. 100 and also presented her a book. She was happily married and in the new atmosphere to which great Kerala poet, Maha Kavi Sankara G.Kurup, referred in one of his letters addressed to her as " your happy home where poetry and art lead a blissful wedded life." Career Rani started to paint at the age of thirteen. She had a wonderful memories of that period making pencil drawings on the margins of school books. Rani received encouragement in the Simla Fine Art Exhibition held in 1948, her water color painting " The Dancer", done in wash style, took the first prize. Again in 1953, in the Silver Jubilee Fine Arts Exhibition of the Indian Academy of Fine Arts, Amritsar, presided over by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, her well known work, "Twin Sisters Day and Night", received a gold medal and her two other exhibits " Memory and Moonlight" and " Wayside Rest" were widely acclaimed and celebrated. Her activities associated with her position as the head of High School and as member of numerous social and literary organizations. She is a painter of varied rich spiritual experiences and even in her maturity she has retained the freshness of vision which is the special property of children and poets. In 1955 she visited Kangra Valley and met Sobha Singh there. She brought her into close contact with the beauty of nature in its lush green terraced rice