By Craig Horleman

DOVER — Rebecca Raubacher remembers exactly how her love of art and horses began.

She was 3 years old, and her oldest sister, Tricia, took her to a farm and put her on a pony.

She was hooked. When she got home, she asked her mother to give her a pencil and paper, so she could draw horses, as well.

That day, two of her greatest passions came together.

“I had never picked up a pencil to draw before that,” Ms. Raubacher recalled.

“I just fell in love with the whole thing. Walking into the barn, hearing the animals eating out in the pasture, making noises, moving around — everything. I mean, the smell of leather, everything, just hit home, and I was in heaven. I’ve said this before, but as a little kid, there were a lot of children in my family. There were nine of us, and I was No. 7.

“I just fell in love immediately. And I just felt that, if I could draw myself a pony, I could own the pony. So, it was a way for me to have what I couldn’t have but have it in spirit.”

Ms. Raubacher went on to become an accomplished artist, owning her Raubacher Gallery in Dover for over 30 years. Plus, she just recently received a fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts.

She graduated from Maryland College of Art and Design with a certificate of fine arts and from Delaware State University with a Bachelor of Science in art education, both with honors. Ms. Raubacher’s acclaimed works are in many private, corporate and public collections.

Now, her latest exhibit will put her first love on display. “Rebecca Raubacher: Horses & Other Creatures” starts at the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover with a reception March 14 from 6-8 p.m. It will be on view until July 7.

The exhibition also includes animals from farther afield, like African wildlife and pieces from family fishing trips to Florida, along with mythological creatures.

Born and raised in Wilmington, Ms. Raubacher is a 1972 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School, which she said had an excellent arts program. By ninth grade, she was already hooked on art of all kinds.

“My mother had purchased and given me as a gift — and it wasn’t even my birthday, so she had to do it when none of the other kids were around — she gave me a mechanical drawing pen. And, to this day, I am never without a mechanical drawing pen for doing pen and inks. And I beat the crap out of that thing. I drop it all the time. They have very fine needle points, and I’ve dropped it a couple times and got it stuck in linoleum.”

But her interest in art goes back even further than that.

“At 4, my family was aware that I was drawing because they kept paper all around for me. My mother must have been having a baby — probably my youngest sister — and somehow, my father got stuck with me,” she said. “He took me to the Delaware Art Museum, and I remember distinctly him picking me up, so I could get a closer look at the Rossettis and the other pre-Raphaelite paintings. So, it wasn’t just drawing at 3 but looking at artwork at 4.”

While a variety of drawings and genres interested her, she kept coming back to horses. For her, it’s all about motion.

“Movement equals attitude, as well, and I like to think my animals have some attitude, as well as movement. There’s a flow between the horse’s head up, and its nostrils flared, its ears (are) back, and then, it goes right through the rest of the horse. That’s all part of the movement,” she said.

“Horses & Other Creatures” will be Ms. Raubacher’s second show at the Biggs. Her first was in 2019, titled “Rebecca Raubacher: Drawings and Paintings.” Her work will also be shown during the Delaware Division of the Arts’ “Award Winners” exhibit at the Biggs from April 18 through July 28.

“I’m incredibly grateful for everything that Biggs has done. They have really risen to the cause and have been wonderful to work with,” she said. “They have been nothing but supportive, and they’re just great. I can’t say enough about them.”

The upcoming show contains pieces large and small. The biggest is over 13 feet wide, titled “Two Bays and a Gray With Black Forms.” Most are mixed-media works, created through the layering of torn and collaged paper, paint, charcoal, pastel, marker and metallic elements.

“I always say, ‘The piece talks to me.’ I start one line, and from that line, the composition tells me where the next one should be. Then, when I’m working on it, it’ll tell me, ‘You might want to use oil stick here and get a more rustic tension on the surface,’” she said.

“I also work with razor blades. I will scratch it. I wouldn’t cut it. I put torn paper on the surface and glue it down. A lot of people are like, ‘You can’t use oil paint and acrylic.’ Well, I don’t mix them. I layer them, so if one has cured, it’s possible to put the other on top. I will often have a big, fat piece of charcoal in my hand and stick my hand in some water and then mark the surface,” she explained. “I have no formula for anything I do. ... I’ve never stopped reaching for different materials.”

The exhibit’s mythological pieces include a minotaur and a work inspired by Achilles.

“I was very mythologically aware before high school. In art school, I did a Charon. It’s the gentleman that rowed the boat over the River Styx, and my daughter found it and laid claim to it. So, that’s out in California. But she’s always saying, ‘Did you do any new mythological work?’ So, she kind of puts the bug in my ear. And then, I do a few pieces for her, which she has,” Ms. Raubacher said.

“And then, when I was out to see her a year ago, after she had a baby, she gifted me two of Stephen Fry’s mythology books. One is called ‘Mythos,’ and one is called ‘Heroes.’ Those were big books, and I got through both of them, and I just was very inspired.”

Longtime residents of Dover previously, Ms. Raubacher and her husband, Chris Raubacher, moved to Rehoboth Beach full time about 18 years ago. They go out every morning to the water, a sketchbook in Ms. Raubacher’s hands.

“Unless I have an early-morning appointment or something, and then, I’ll go afterwards. But my husband and I go out every morning. I even got really good binoculars for Christmas. I can see my birds, and I can distinguish between a merganser and a bufflehead,” she said. “I’m  terribly fond of the buffleheads, but they are only here for a short time. Mergansers, I think, hang around longer.”

The Biggs Museum is at 406 Federal St. and is open Thursdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For information, visit biggsmuseum.org.