Rebecca Browning’s “Friendships: Nature’s Poetic Cycle” exhibit opens September 4, at the Museum

The central message of the art of Rebecca Browning is the harmony of the interconnectedness of nature. An exhibit of her work will open Thursday, September 4, 2025, 5:30 – 7 at the Union County Heritage Museum in New Albany. She will give a gallery talk at 6 p.m.

Browning, a resident of Union County for most of her life, is an artist, an art teacher and an avid student of the rhythms of nature.

Friendships: Nature’s Poetic Cycle is the title of the exhibit. “Before I do any work, I do a lot of research and study about the subjects of the artwork,” she said. And the subjects she pairs in her prints and pastels are for example the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly and its host plant, the intricate Passion Vine.

Browning shows the ecological balances of nature not in scientific terms, but in the intricacy of her carved prints, choice of subject matter and the subtle colors and forms in her use of printmaking and pastels.

The stories that she tells are that of the Mayapple and the Wood Frog, the Quail and the Blackberry, Skippers among the Bellflowers, Box Turtle Among the Jack-In-The -Pulpits and many others

“I place together a lot of plants that I love with the animal life that interacts with the plants,” she said.

From her studio at her home in the eastern part of the county, she has a meadow filled with blooming flowers, pollinators and animals that inspire much of her work. Whether day or night, subjects of her artwork are busy. “At night I sit on my front steps when it’s nearly dark and watch the bats come out.” They come to the night blooming flowers in her garden that she depicts in her work.

Ever the teacher, Browning says, “I get a lot of satisfaction bringing things out about nature that people can discover.” And the connections she makes with her art work brings joy to nature lovers as well as art lovers.

A graduate of New Albany High School and later the University of Mississippi with a Bachelor’s Degree in Art, Browning taught art in public school for thirty years. She continues to teach classes in different forms such as print making, printing from nature, textile arts and more. Her art work has been commissioned by the Audubon Society, Delta Wing Birds, Union County Leadership as well as many others.

She and her husband Roger have three children and a host of grandchildren that they enjoy. It is not unusual to see Rebecca in the creek near their house with the grandchildren enjoying nature and collecting things that they will later use in her studio as she works with them and their art projects.

Rebecca takes a lot of photos and makes prints from her photos and drawings. Another aspect of her work with plants is a method that she developed of printing with the actual plants. She dries the blooms, stems and leaves between the pages of books as well as uses them fresh from the garden to make prints. Her dried plant library brings the shapes, forms and textures back to life when she prints them onto the paper.

While nature is art unto itself, the way Browning interprets the harmonies of the web of life shows in interconnection of living things as well as the quiet and beautiful order of our natural world in a way that it can be hung on the wall to enjoy in all seasons.

Browning, a multi-talented artist, also works in clay, and a collection of the clay seed pods she has created will also be on exhibit.

The exhibit will continue through October. Browning will also demonstrate her style printmaking October 9, 6 p.m. at the museum. The exhibit continues through October 2025.

This is a show and a sale. For more information, contact the museum at 662-538-0014 or email uchm@ucheritagExhibit emuseum.com. The museum is located at 114 Cleveland St., New Albany, MS 38652.

Come and bring a friend.

Jill Smith, Director
Union County Heritage Museum
114 Cleveland Street
New Albany,MS 38652