Date:  July 31, 2023  |   Story: Stephanie Maxwell Newton  |   Photography: Courtesy of Dennis McCann  |  

The houses depicted in Dennis McCann’s pastel works could be anywhere. Mostly modest dwellings with siding and pan-type window awnings, they will seem familiar to anyone who has driven around the outskirts of city life in the South. And while Dennis insists his interest in them lies in the hard-edged shadows created when the light hits just right, it’s worth noting that many of his subjects are from the neighborhood where he grew up in North Little Rock. “That’s sort of my slice of life,” he says. Such is the setting for “The Neighbors,” a piece he completed in 2015 from photographs taken on a sunny day.

Influenced by the work of American painters Edward Hopper, Robert Cottingham, and Al Allen—the last of whom was a well-regarded Arkansas artist and one of Dennis’s instructors in college—Dennis started his career as a painter. Now, most of his work is in pastels. The medium offers immediacy, yet still allows him to build layer upon layer, saturating the paper with hues in a style of clean-lined realism that’s controlled in some areas and more painterly in others. “I used to be real tight. But when I loosened up and stood back, it looked more realistic,” he says, pointing to the foliage in “The Neighbors” as an example of this effect.

After earning both bachelors and masters degrees in fine art, Dennis later got a degree in teaching, though never used it—unlike his wife and son, who share his artistic nature. Instead, he was a firefighter. “What motivated me to pursue that was they offered a 24 hours on, 48 off work schedule,” he says. “I had been selling typewriters five days a week and trying to find weekends to work.” His 31-year career with the Little Rock Fire Department allowed him the uninterrupted time in the studio he was looking for. “Most artists, I think they’re artists because that’s just what they are,” he says. “They may have another thing that pays the bills, but they can’t help themselves; they’re sort of addicted to it. I think that’s me.” Dennis’s work is available through Justus Fine Art Gallery in Hot Springs and Boswell Mourot Fine Art in Little Rock. Visit mccannfineart.com for more information.  

Artwork featured above: “The Neighbors” by Dennis McCann, 30” x 42” soft pastel on paper