"Color was not a consideration." Then she came to Gloucester

Ann Ledy on the creation of "Portals" at Jane Deering Gallery

Ann Ledy, Portals. 2025. Oil on linen, 84”x84”. In Ann Ledy Paints at Jane Deering Gallery. Photo Neil Carpenter. All photos courtesy Ann Ledy.

Everything changed for Ann Ledy when she arrived in Gloucester after decades in Manhattan and Minneapolis. The artist, best known for her work in black, white, and in between: postminimalist works on paper crafted from deconstructed books; pieces on rice paper and vellum exploring layers, patterns, and working in multiples.

“Throughout most of my career I was a formalist,” she writes in her website biography. “I avoided visual content. I approached my work conceptually. Color was not a consideration.”

A Manship Artist in Residence brought Ann to Cape Ann in 2022, where instead of layering her vellum, she was working on both sides of a single page. “I had a table that I set up in front of a window overlooking a quarry. This was October, and the leaves and the the color against the water was extraordinary,” she said. “I carried forward my approach to my work and the patterning, which became really rich. And then all of a sudden, I started to incorporate the roundabout and lights and reflections.”

Color flooded into her art. Taffy pink, strawberry red, spring green. Blue upon blue.