Odd Roads & Sheila Foundation

In November 2022 Odd Roads authors Paul Finucane and Catherine Stuart generously donated the rights to their book to the Sheila Foundation. This reprint and all subsequent reprints will be undertaken by Sheila, with the proceeds from the book sales helping to fund its programs.

Sheila is a national philanthropic foundation that addresses the historical and continuing gender bias against women in Australian art. It aims to paint women artists back into our history, assist and celebrate contemporary women artists and support the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art at The University of Western Australia.

Sheila is delighted to be publishing this reprint of Odd Roads to be Walking. The book and Sheila have a substantial overlap of interest. Sheila's project Into the Light: Recovering Australia's lost women artists 1870-1960 is a national data gathering exercise to collect and make available information on generations of professional women artists whose work has slipped from view. Many of them are featured in this book which, like Sheila, is doing its part in rewriting the story of Australian art. It is fitting the book's profits will help fund this project.

If you would like to support Into the Light, visit the Sheila Foundation website to make a one-off donation or join the Into the Light donor circle. Donor circle members contribute $2,000 a year for three years, with funds used to acquire artworks by lesser known women artists uncovered in our research.

Pictured below is the foun

The Cruthers Collection of Women's Art

The inspiration for the Sheila Foundation is Lady Sheila Cruthers (pictured below with her husband, Jim). Lady Sheila was the driving force behind the largest stand-alone collection of Australian women’s art – the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art.

Sheila was a visionary who recognised the importance and value of Australian women’s art long before most. She mentored and supported many emerging women artists who went on to develop significant careers including Narelle Jubelin, Susan Norrie and Julie Dowling. The collection she built is unique in Australia and particularly important at a time when historians and the public are realising how under-represented women are in Australia’s history. To quote art historian Rex Butler, it is “a tremendous resource for the rethinking of Australian art”.

The collection is currently held at the University of Western Australia and accessible in person or via their website

Odd Roads & Sheila Foundation