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Rebecca Raubacher

Rehoboth Beach

Established
Visual Arts: Painting

By: Gail Obenreder

“My oldest sister took me for a pony ride. When I came home, I asked for pencil and paper. I’ve been drawing ever since.”

Rebecca Raubacher began drawing at age three-and-a-half, though she’s expanded the media in which she works and the experiences that feed her. No matter where she is, the artist continues to draw every day. She travels to zoos to observe and draw the animals, and even when she accompanies her husband on his fishing expeditions, “I am on the boat drawing the activity and the wildlife around us.”

Raubacher grew up in Wilmington, the seventh of nine children. Her parents, who encouraged her desire to draw, helped to establish her lifelong work ethic. “We didn’t have much, but I had a limitless supply of paper and pencil.” He mother (a musician) gave the artist a mechanical drawing pen when she began high school, and “I have never been without [one] since then.” Her father took her to the Delaware Art Museum and picked her up to get a closer look at their Pre-Raphaelite collection, artworks that Raubacher continues to count as one of her inspirations.

The artist received a studio certificate with honors from the Maryland College of Art and Design, and her accomplished career now includes sixteen solo exhibitions nationwide and participation in fifteen group shows. Her works are in private collections and seven corporate or museum collections, including (coming full circle) one recently acquired by the Delaware Art Museum.

Now a resident of Rehoboth Beach, Raubacher has been a Delawarean for most of her life, though she lived and worked briefly in Atlanta, Reston (Virginia), and Elizabeth City (North Carolina). Drawing on that early beginning with pencil and paper, Raubacher’s paintings still often feature the horses that first inspired her, but she is also passionate about portraying the figure. “The subject is the central theme, be it horse or figure, while the layering of materials, including torn paper collage, brings a heightened intensity.”

The artist is also inspired by her two children, their spouses, and her four grandchildren. “Creative ideas are whirling around them constantly.” And she continues to draw from the natural world, trying to “recreate the sense of motion and immediacy” that she finds there. In her natural drawings Raubacher tries to capture more than “just the physical form of the animal.” She tries to “give the animal work human characteristics and the figure and portrait work animal characteristics.”

Raubacher finds that “the scale of the large work presents somewhat of a physical challenge.” But for her, creation is “a desire, part of my everyday,” and she is rewarded when “a complex work that has argued with me is resolved.” When she sees her paintings in front of the public, the artist is gratified by “watching and listening to the viewers and their observations and comments.”

Raubacher is grateful for the Established Artist recognition from the juror, as well as the Division support for her work that “gives credence to my art and opens the door to more professional opportunities.” The award gives her the increased resources to “move forward with new materials and explore new avenues,” continuing to study both animals and the figure as “an endless source of inspiration.”

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