Sketchbooks

Debra Luker’s sketchbooks sit at the very core of her creative practice. They are not simply preparatory works, but vital, living documents—spaces in which instinct, memory, and observation converge. Within their pages, she explores mark-making, colour, and texture with immediacy and freedom, layering notes, wrappings, market finds, old photographs, Hindi papers, and fragments gathered through travel.

Working predominantly in mixed media, Luker often constructs her sketchbooks in a concertina format, hand-bound with tactile, dyed fabric covers. These intimate objects unfold rhythmically, mirroring the movement of her journeys and the fluidity of her responses. They act as both archive and catalyst—the origin point from which larger works emerge and evolve.

Her sketchbooks are where she locates herself most truthfully: a space of direct, often passionate response, guided by instinct and an acute sensitivity to place. Nowhere is this more evident than in India, where the intensity of colour, texture, and lived experience draws an immediate and deeply expressive engagement.