Madhuri Bhaduri

To step into a Madhuri Bhaduri painting is to find yourself suspended between sky and water, in a space where emotion and atmosphere mirror one another. Today, she is celebrated as one of India’s foremost contemporary artists, known for her radiant seascapes, shimmering moonscapes, and the emotional landscapes that lie in between.

Working primarily with oils, her brush evokes the fleeting elegance of changing skies, meditative waters, and distant horizons. Her thematic series—Horizons, Moon, and Reflections, serve not only as poetic engagements with the elements, but as personal mappings of her inner landscape. For Bhaduri, the canvas becomes a mirror: “It often maps the mood that I am in,” she says. Her art, therefore, is both an outward gaze and an inward journey.

Madhuri’s journey into art was anything but linear. With degrees in Economics and French and a career in sport behind her, she turned fully to art in the 1980s, earning a Master’s in Fine Art from SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai. Even as her early exhibitions gained support from luminaries like Maharani Gayatri Devi and Jamshedji Bhabha, her path was shaped by personal upheavals - Art, during those years, became her sanctuary and strength.

In recognition of her artistic excellence, Madhuri has been honored with numerous awards, including the Amrita Shergill Rashtriya Kala Puraskar and the Exceptional Woman of Excellence in Art Award from the Women’s Economic Forum, Netherlands.

Today, her life continues to be one of joyful equilibrium, one that embraces both movement and stillness. Whether painting in her studio, exercising to keep mind and body agile, or simply watching the moon change shape, she remains grounded in gratitude and hope. “I live in the moment,” she says. “I believe energy multiplies and optimism attracts more light.”