About Us
A happy, accidental meeting of Debra Luker and Louisa de Jong, founders of The Pigment Trail, who share a passion and similar interests of a creative edge: travel, colour, decorative arts, history, ancient walls, crafts and to live in a sustainable environment.
We are also sociable creatures, so The Pigment Trail is our energy and ways we can share ideas and inspiration through a creative travel itinerary and creative journeys.
ABOUT DEBRA
Debra is a London-based mixed-media artist and author with a fine arts background from Kingston School of Art. She has over two decades of teaching experience as well as creating captivating feature walls, theatre stage settings and props. Clients include Anthropologie, Vogue and V&A Museum.
Debra’s artistic journey has now led her to fully immerse herself in painting. Her creative passion extends to her travels, especially in India, where she finds inspiration in found treasures, old textiles and the coloured streets. She is fascinated by the faded elegance and beauty of age and decay; torn papers, peeling paint, old motifs, faded colours and fragile and delicate shades of multi-layered fragments of history.
Passionate about texture, pattern and colour, Debra’s work comes alive through intricate collages, drawings and a meticulous layering process. Her unique sketchbooks offer a rare glimpse into her creative process, filled with thoughts, colour, drawing and collected treasures from her journeys.
India, particularly Rajasthan, holds a special place in Debra’s heart influencing much of her vibrant artwork.
Her upcoming book, The Pigment Trail will be published in March 2024.
Through her sketchbook and her camera, Debra has created a unique portrait of a country seen through the eye of an artist. Debra invites readers to embark on her artistic odyssey across India through captivating collages, drawings, photographs, and musings.
Follow Debra’s Creative journey on Debra’s Instagram page, or at The Pigment Trail’s Art Inspiration Blog and Instagram.
ABOUT LOUISA
Louisa de Jong is a fellow travel addict, and first leading and managing overseas tours and groups 25 years ago. Her corporate career spanned 15 years in strategic marketing, business and project management.
This experience, spanning five continents, gives her a wealth of knowledge for her role as Operations Director for the Pigment Trail, where she overseas management, operations and commercial elements of the company. Despite travelling widely, her weak spot is creative travel in India, having travelled extensively there, never looking back!
CREATIVE TRAVEL HOLIDAYS
Our tours bring a unique sense of magic to a destination – a creative way to travel. Having been on many global tours ourselves, we often found they were generic, rarely venturing off the beaten track and tried to do too much in a short space of time (leading to lots of coach travel and bag packing).
It is a common misconception that once you land in a country, the magic will find you. Unfortunately, it rarely does and not consistently enough. We are thrilled to bring you something truly different- hand-crafted journeys, with each destination, each skill and each moment hand selected by us. A chance to explore and discover yourself in a truly creative and intimate environment.
“So much of who we are is where we have been”.
ABOUT THE PIGMENT TRAIL
The Pigment Trail is the celebration of years of searching the world for inspiration. The joy of creative travel.
The love of East meets West and the handmade world. Getting deeper under the skin of the cultures we have travelled to and seeing that translated in our every day. Wonderful creative travel escapes.
Over decades, this passion and work has become an addiction for us and through The Pigment Trail we are able to share our professional experience with like-minded people whilst travelling to beautiful corners of the world through creative travel and tours.
‘Just an elephant cruising casually down the Sadar Bazar Road in Bundi. One of the many wonderful memories I have whilst with The Pigment Trail. So many treasured sights in wonderful Rajasthan. I highly recommend this unique experience with @thepigmenttrail’.
Mary, The Pigment Trail Art and Craft Holiday, Rajasthan India. Nov 2019.
THOUGHTFUL TOURISM
Our mission is to always travel thoughtfully, ensuring we work with local communities to understand the impact of our wanderlusting footsteps. From helping local schools, to working with the right suppliers, we ensure our actions are sustainable.
We also appreciate that different cultures see things differently, and by participating in creative travel and tourism you have a chance to pause and immerse yourself in the culture, thereby opening up both sides of the conversation.