Artist and author Debra Luker fell in love with India long before her first visit—and that has shaped her creative path ever since. What began as a personal journey has grown into something she now shares with others with her small group sketchbook tours through India. Along the way, a creative community forms, rooted in observation, color, and connection.
In this month’s Out and About, Debra shares how her travels turned into a creative practice—and how the experience of sketching alongside others in India reveals not just beauty but belonging.
“India captured my heart long before I ever set foot on its soil. People often assumed I had already been there, perhaps sensing the quiet love affair woven into my home, where vibrant shades of deep turquoise, lilac, fiery red, and sun-kissed orange breathe life into every corner. Often, I paint a new color just to capture a memory, carefully searching for the perfect hue to hold a moment in time. In the corner of my kitchen sits Lord Ram, a treasure from a market, not in India, but evocative of it. His deep blue form feels like a guardian, an echo from another life.
India wasn’t just a place I dreamed of—it was stitched into the very fabric of my soul.
On my first trip, 10 years ago, I arrived with a blank sketchbook and a racing heart. I panicked. My pages were white, but nothing around me was. The streets were alive with patina, texture, and color I had never imagined—each shade worn with purpose, for spring, for fertility, for joy.
I ventured out by tuk-tuk, collecting treasures from the bazaars: Hindi newspapers, temple books, old postcards, scraps of fabric. These fragments became the foundation of my sketchbooks—layered with paint and found paper, then drawn over. That’s how my visual stories began.
Today, I share these experiences with small groups of fellow creatives who travel to India with me. Together, we wander, sketch, and explore—capturing the extraordinary beauty we encounter: intricate doorways, tangled wires, faded posters, majestic motifs. Each of us falls in love with something different, and that’s what makes the creative journey so rich. Through mixed media and mark-making, we tell our stories together.
One day in Jaipur, I watched as our group sat silently drawing the same flower market from different corners of the alley. Later, we laid our sketchbooks side by side and marveled at how each version told a completely different story—each one shaped by what caught that artist’s eye and heart.
The sketchbooks become more than pages—they hold reflection, courage, curiosity, and connection. That’s what I hope people take home—not just a journal of marks, but a shared memory of seeing the world differently—and seeing themselves a little differently too.”
If you would like to see her work or know more about Debra’s creative journeys to India: debraluker.com ׀ @debra.luker ׀ debra@debraluker.com
Debra’s book, The Pigment Trail is published by Schiffer Crafts and is available from Fiber Art Now here and is available worldwide.
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Our Out and About blogs are curated by mixed-media artist Cami Smith, Fiber Art Now’s media manager and community engagement coordinator.
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