Book excerpt: 'It was an odd road to be walking, this of painting.' So wrote Virginia Woolf in her classic 1927 novel, To the Lighthouse. While the life journeys of many artists can be described as 'odd roads', few were as original and challenging as those of the pioneering Australian women of art from the late 19th and 20th centuries. As these richly talented women gathered around their easels and shared their dining tables, their courage, energy and generosity shone through. This book tells something of the extraordinary lives of these women and in the process celebrates their individuals and collective contributions to the shaping of modern Australian art.