Abbie Rabinowitz

Abbie was born the third out of six children and raised in a creative household where her parents (both artists) taught children’s art classes out of their large, rambling, stone house they built in rural Bethany, Connecticut. Painting and making art was a wonted activity in her life. Visitors who came to her family home were amazed to discover that she and her siblings were allowed to draw all over the walls. It seemed only natural that Abbie chose to become an artist.

After graduating art school with a BFA from SUNY at Purchase, Abbie began painting seriously and moved to San Francisco. During her 30 years in California, Abbie lived on a houseboat in Sausalito, joined a commune in the Haight Ashbury, collaborated on art for Burningman, and became a resident at a live/work arts community in Santa Cruz. She attended San Francisco State University where she studied computer graphics and conceptual design.

Travel has played an important role in her development and expanded her vision. Her travels have taken her to over 30 countries. She lived for two years in Europe where she painted landscapes and people, and funded herself by drawing caricatures in the south of France. One can trace her adventures from the many watercolors and sketches of places she has traveled.

Abbie paints in a loose, expressive style, inspired by the natural world around her. Observing directly from nature, she paints pleinair landscapes as well as her painterly abstractions.

In 2012, she returned to her Connecticut roots to be close to her family and in 2015 received her MFA degree from Western Connecticut State University, where she completed an emotionally evocative series of her elderly parents for her thesis work.

Abbie moved to the Big Island of Hawaii in 2017 where she has established herself as an island artist. She paints and teaches art workshops and has taught as a visiting teacher at the Hui No’ Eau in Maui. She leads and facilitates Abstract Painting Retreats near her home on the Big Island of Hawaii.

In 2023, Abbie was awarded a Vibrant Hawaii Artist Fellowship which she is using to offer art classes to benefit her local community, including art students as well as other artists.