Ms Mabin's flat adjoins their house, where the burglars smashed a window to get in.
She left her flat about 9.30am and, after arriving home about 4.30pm, noticed the door joining her flat to the main house, which had been locked, was open.
"I knew I hadn't left it like that - and then I saw my TV and computer were gone - and the painting."
She said she had been painting for the past 15 years and had sold and exhibited her work. She recently enrolled in an art course at the EIT "to take it further".
The stolen work, titled Coping In A Crowd and measuring 1.5m long, was special to her.
"Whoever has got it, it won't mean a stuff to them. I have to accept it's gone from me now."
It was not the only artwork the thieves targeted.
From the main house, apart from usual targets such as electrical items, they also took ornaments and statuettes - two of the more distinctive items were of African figures. They also took a bowl the couple had bought in Thailand, as well as some of their paintings and a print from Mt Bruce Reserve of a native kea.
The thieves also helped themselves to several books.
"Not your usual items," Hawke's Bay police law-enforcement team Detective Sergeant Heath Jones said.
The entire haul's value was estimated to be about $5000.
Ms Mabin said she did not have insurance, although the houseowners did, and since the break-in had installed burglar alarms.
She said she had heard of other recent burglaries in the Meeanee and Jervoistown area.
Rural residents are being urged to keep an eye on their neighbourhoods and report any suspicious activity, including unusual vehicle movements.
