Odin Kaeselau Smith is a native Cape Cod artist who resides in Harwich, MA, with her husband and five young sons. She is a full-time mother who uses her spare moments to capture time, light and emotion through her artwork.

Odin’s pastel, acrylic and watercolor paintings are frequently inspired by the beautiful Cape Cod images that have imprinted themselves on her senses since she was a very small child. She enjoys portraying subjects in a manner that fills them with light and life. The motivation of her art comes from wanting to know the secrets of our relationship to nature and why we are so influenced by the beauty of light and color.

“There is a part of me in each of my paintings. Each piece becomes like one of my children, something that I have nurtured and filled with love and energy, but has a strong and beautiful life of its own. I would like the viewer to feel as though they are connected to the image on a personal level — that they have experienced the emotion expressed within the painting. I aspire to create paintings that people can drift into, paintings that give a sense of place and peace.”

Odin comes from an artistic family. She has a strong connection to her family’s roots, which began in the heart of the Provincetown art colony, in the days of Charles Hawthorne. That influence can be seen in her work — the subjects she chooses to paint, her palette and style. She is the granddaughter Charles Anton Kaeselau, a Provincetown artist, who holds an important place in the Cape’s art history. His wife, Odin’s paternal grandmother, Marguerite Benjamin Kaeselau, was also an accomplished artist, who worked in book and advertisement illustration. Her grandparents have always been an inspiration to her.

Odin believes that each painting or illustration is a discovery and education in itself. Teaching painting classes has been a way to share her artistic exploration. She has won several awards, and has shown in many juried exhibitions, including the PPSCC National Juried Exhibition, the “Women Creating” show held at the Cahoon Museum of American Art, the Leo Diehl Exhibition, and the All Cape Cod Art Show. Mrs. Smith has mentored in the Student-Mentor Program through the Cape Cod Museum of Art. She is also a professional illustrator, with experience in magazine and book cover illustration. Odin is the President of the Guild of Harwich Artists, and a member of the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, the Creative Arts Center in Chatham, MA, and the Cape Cod Art Association, in Barnstable, MA. She supports the next generation of artists as a member of the Friends of the Arts, in Harwich MA.