Jagdish Chander Puri was born in Sialkot now in Western Pakistan in 1935. His family shifted to Shimla when he was 12 years old. The rich beauty of the Shimla hills, woods, and riverine at different times of the day and seasons motivated him to explore the subtilities of nature, and he wondered how seamlessly the different aspects within nature – the birds, the woods, the leaves, the stones, and the sun – integrated and merged with one another.
Puri completed his matriculation from the DAV High School, Shimla and in 1951, he joined the Government College of Arts in Shimla (shifted to Chandigarh). In 1956, Puri completed a five years Diploma Course in Commercial Art and stood First in his class. He was soon placed as a commercial artist by the government of India.
In 1968, he joined a one year “Post Graduate Diploma Course in Mass Communication” in 1968 and pursued a corporate career with State Trading Corporation that lasted for 22 years. He took retirement from STC in 1991 and started teaching mass communication and public relations in various institutes in Delhi including the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and Mass Communication Institute.
Finally, in 2005, after a hectic career in service and teaching, he turned his attention to his passion for arts. It wasn’t easy – after all he had taken to the brush after 35 years – but stroke by stroke and canvas by canvas, Puri took no time to regain his midas touch.
He developed a unique technique for creating special effects in water colours that is greatly admired by art critics and art lovers. It is said that one has to eventually come back to one’s source. Puri’s return to the art world is coming back to that oneness.
