Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (In That Order) by Bridget Quinn, illustrated by Lisa Congdon, came along with me on my recent trip to the Cayman Islands with the Chaplain.  I read most of it sitting at a couple of pristine stretches of beach on Grand Cayman, and those times were some of my favorite parts of the trip.

What made the book a great beach read?

Broad Strokes is a book of origin stories, stories about women artists, most of whom I’d never heard of. Quinn weaves her own story and the story of art into the book as well. It’s full of interesting facts and tidbits, but it isn’t too heavy for a vacation read.

I confess Quinn lost me with many of her art references – I am a deeply creative person, and even minored in art in college, but I never truly embraced art academically. I didn’t think I was good enough. The book references people, culture, and movements as if we’ll all know what they mean, and I didn’t.

Many times Quinn references pieces of art or ideas so we can look them up. In this way, the book reminded me of The Secret Lives of Color – tons of art references, but no images to support them. Featuring more art could have made the book busy (and more expensive to print) but I still wish additional pieces from each artist had been included.

The content of the book was so good, that the missed art references were just a passing annoyance and didn’t really take away from my enjoyment of the book. Part of the problem was my own – I didn’t have cell service on my trip, and so it wasn’t easy to look up things I wasn’t familiar with. Additionally, the book was so good I didn’t want to put it down to do additional research.

This IS a picture book. It includes images of each artist’s work. The book also contains stylized illustrations of each of the artists featured. The illustrations were distracting, and didn’t really communicate anything essential, especially since the book also contained prints of the artists’ work, often including self portraits.

Instead of these illustrations, a photo of the artist, or one of her self portraits, could have been included at the beginning of each chapter. These ladies were more than capable of depicting themselves.

The self portraits in the book were especially compelling because the way we see ourselves tells others so much about our inner life. This was one of my favorites:The woman in the painting, Judith Leyster, isn’t letting anything get in the way of her art, not even a ridiculous lace ruff. Her face is so full of personality. I would love to share a cup of tea with her, if only I could go back in time to the 1600’s.

Each woman’s life is told largely in the context of the connections the artists had to other people in their lives. It was a book about women, written in a relational way, which was both appealing and effective.

Broad Strokes is deeply felt – it is humorous, wrenching, and fascinating. The book makes us feel we knew the women, if only a little. Their works are interpreted expertly to give us an even more intimate peek into the inner lives of the artists. Here, Quinn puts her skills to good use helping us to understand the symbolism, cultural context, and broader meaning behind the works.

Reading this book, you may find yourself asking, how did I not know about these ladies? Perhaps you’ll recognize the art and finally be able to associate it with its maker.

I enjoyed the design and format of the book, and I enjoyed learning about art history. Reading it inspired me: I can’t wait to start my next creative endeavor. I’m also looking forward to my next opportunity to visit the Met, where a number of the artists in the book have their work displayed. I absolutely recommend Broad Strokes for the beach, the sofa, the train, your back porch, or wherever you find time to crack open its pages.