Being a born and raised Cape Codder shapes your identity, saltwater runs through your veins, and the sounds of the ocean’s waves crashing on the shore echo in your subconscious like a siren’s song. For artist Dianna Braginton-Smith, growing up in such a place of natural beauty, surrounded by her family of artists—like her mom, Dorothy Braginton-Smith, who painted with the likes of Romanos Rizk back in the 50s and her historian dad, Jack Braginton-Smith (of Yarmouthport’s iconic Jack’s Outback), who she calls “a local character and one of the first performance artists” —she says, “They had such an influence, I didn’t know it was an influence. I was in a world where everybody was making magic all the time, so it became my normal.” 

After attending The Museum School in Boston for a year, like a pebble itching to get out of a shoe, she knew she needed to leave the city for her hometown—which to this day remains her biggest creative influence. “The idea of being an individual was ingrained very strongly in me by both of my parents. There was not a lot of need for other people’s approval,” says Dianna. “You can learn technique at art school, but nobody can make you an artist.” 

For Dianna, a major creative influence and muse is the iconic Anne Packard. “I had written to her many years back after first seeing her landscape work and viewing the intangible quality of atmospherics that felt like the remembrance that I was trying to get through my mind from my brush onto the canvas,” she shares. “In the letter I included some images of paintings I was working on and asked for her advice. She kindly sent back a lovely handwritten letter, which I treasure to this day, encouraging me to just keep painting and follow my instincts. She said that at 80 she was still trying to get there herself.”  

Through her camera Dianna captures compositions that speak to her, like the Cape Cod light dancing across the dunes of Sandy Neck, or the ever evolving hues of the marsh grass, sea and sky. In her Yarmouthport studio Dianna draws inspiration for her paintings and linocut graphics from those images. “I’m deeply inspired by nostalgia for the 1970s Cape Cod of my childhood, the way I remember the natural beauty and charm of that simpler time,” she remarks. “I’m less inclined to define my style,” Dianna notes while emphasizing she wants her artwork to speak for itself. “The goal of my work is to paint a suggestion of a moment in time, that allows space for people’s own memories and feelings about a place to fill in the gaps.”

Through her artwork, Dianna’s connection to the Cape Cod community shines as she donates her time and work where and when she can to causes that sustain our region. “I inherited from my dad this understanding of how incredibly fortunate we are to be in these communities and to support them however we can,” she shares. To name a few: the annual Adult Egg Hunt auction for Katelynn’s Closet, supporting land conservancies and sanctuaries through auctioning her work, designing the logo and contributing a tuna titled Seeing the Light, for Barnstable Village Association’s Hooked on Art Auction (taking place this July) in Barnstable Harbor that supports their community mission, and designing a mermaid graphic for the poster and merchandise for Cape Cod Women’s Music Festival benefiting Cape Wellness Collaborative. Her work can also be found for purchase locally at Yarmouthport’s Lighthouse Keeper’s Pantry on their merchandise and graphics—one of which depicts their popular “Fluffy Seagull”—in both of Frying Pan Gallery’s locations in Wellfeet and Orleans and at Millway Marina’s Gift Shop.  

To see more from Dianna Braginton-Smith, follow her on Instagram @sandyneckstudio.