Women Achievers of Mysuru

  

Smt SUMITRA Y PURTY A hand Embroidery Artist Of Par Excellence

Sumitra Y. Putty, originally from Bangalore, discovered her passion for embroidery art after moving to remote project areas following her marriage to a civil engineer. What began as a way to utilise her spare time gradually developed into a remarkable artistic journey. Though she had practised simple embroidery during childhood, she had never attempted embroidery in the style of painting. Inspired by embroidery works she had seen in her family and guided by her husband in understanding colour combinations, depth, and shading effects, she completed her first major work, Blue Jack Bird, in 1984. The success of this piece encouraged her to continue creating more works.

Her embroidery art is unique and often resembles paintings from a distance. Only on close observation does one realise that the artworks are entirely hand-embroidered. Her subjects include birds, animals, landscapes, portraits of prominent personalities, folk posters, and spiritual themes.

The embroidery is done on plain white cloth, where the outline is first traced and then filled using hand stitches with coloured threads. Using mainly long and short stitches, she creates realistic effects, depth, and shading through careful colour blending and stitch direction. Each coloured embroidery work requires immense patience and may take six to eight months to complete.

Her works have received wide media coverage in leading newspapers and magazines such as The Hindu, Times of India, Indian Express, Prajavani, and Vijaya Karnataka. She has also appeared in television interviews and special programmes on Karnataka Doordarshan Chandana and Mysore C Channel.

Apart from her artistic achievements, she has also contributed socially by teaching embroidery free of cost to economically underprivileged girls, helping them gain financial independence, guiding students, and working towards preserving and promoting this rare art form.

Sumitra Y. Putty has received several recognitions for her contribution to speciality hand embroidery, including the Indian Achievers Award for Speciality Hand Embroidery, first prizes in the Mysore Dasara Art Competition (2014 and 2015), and special appreciation from former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for her embroidered portrait of him. In February 2026, she won first prize in the Portrait Competition – Senior Level organised by Swarga ANARTBY.

ROSE PETAL Mysore had also honoured her as one of the women achievers of Mysore during their lotus & Lilies Extravaganza programme. We the “RASAYAN” are proud to Introduce her in our blog Women achievers of Mysore. we wish her more laurels to her credit. You can look forward to many more women achievers in our blog.

Women Achievers 1 - SUMITRA Y PUTTY