A sense of place and an ample dose of color

Flowers and landscapes are the order of the day when it comes to McCann’s exhibit, on display at the Baylor Health Sciences Library

Last night Dr. Ann McCann painted a rose so big you could walk into it – well, almost.

“It’s a red rose, but it’s got a lot of blues and purples, and the turquoise background really pops,” explains McCann on this Wednesday morning in her office at Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry. “Turquoise and red provide ‘simultaneous contrast.’”

While McCann, director of planning and assessment, does most of her artwork on the weekends, she still takes a class one night each week. It presents the opportunity to be exploratory — especially with color.

“Color is my thing. I want people to look at my paintings and say, ‘Oh, what gorgeous color!’ People love color — they emotionally react to it, so it will be fun to see it all over two walls.”

On Feb. 24, TAMBCD students, faculty and staff can get their first glimpse of McCann’s work during an opening reception for the exhibit, which will be on display in the Baylor Health Sciences Library through late April. Oil is the medium, and palette knife painting is the method. She sculpts the paint onto the canvas to create bright, happy images. Her show, “The Color of Memories,” features flowers and landscapes.

“It is about the places I have visited that evoke happy memories for me,” writes McCann in her artist statement. “These include Cape Cod, Sanibel Island, rural Connecticut and even my own backyard. Flowers always make me feel happy and remind me of my mother. She cherished her flower beds and carefully tended them until she was well into her 80s. I have painted some of her favorites, including iris, peonies, roses, lilacs, Rose of Sharon and tulips.” Hallmark Texas varieties, like hibiscus and crape myrtles, have been thrown in for good measure.

McCann started painting two decades ago, at the same time she enrolled her daughter, then a first-grader, in art classes. In the last couple of years she has parlayed her hobby into a part-time vocation, selling her work and making it available to local galleries. The Baylor Health Sciences Library exhibit follows a fall 2015 show at the Dutch Art Gallery in Dallas.

McCann’s exhibit is one of several that rotates through the library gallery each year. John Schmerein, library associate and arts coordinator for the gallery, says this is the first exhibit featuring works by a TAMBCD employee or student. In the three years since the library has featured a gallery, Schmerein describes feedback from patrons as universally positive.

“The students, in particular, have expressed interest in seeing the art change throughout the school year,” he says.

Exhibit details

“The Color of Memories”

Oil Paintings of flowers and landscapes

Feb. 24-April 22

Opening Reception

4 to 7 p.m., Feb. 24 (refreshments provided)

Baylor Health Sciences Library

3500 Gaston Avenue

Dallas, Texas 75246

TAMBCD students, faculty, staff and friends are invited to attend.