20210815201354

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Paul Rickards

2021

Plotter Drawing

11" x 15"

Description

In his "CMY Carousel Series," Paul Rickards uses vintage pen plotters to explore the interplay between digital precision and human touch. Each drawing begins with flow fields—algorithmic systems that simulate the motion of particles through a vector field, generating smooth, continuous paths for the pen to follow. These fields determine the movement of plotted lines, rendered in successive layers of cyan, magenta, and yellow ink. Where the hatching lines intersect, new tones emerge, forming complex color gradients. A final water wash on 300 gsm cold-press paper softens the plotted marks and blends the hues, giving the works their signature atmospheric quality.

Across the series, Rickards varies both the compositional logic and emotional tenor of his images. Plot 20240122090830 arranges arcs and segments of earthy color that suggest, in their balance and lift, the outline of a bird in flight. Plot 20210902204731 layers featherlike forms in orange, red, and yellow above dark anchoring shapes, evoking a sense of downward motion. In Plot 20210815201354, overlapping rectangles, many of them swollen and rounded, create a dense weave of color and texture. Together, these works trace Rickards’s ongoing investigation into how algorithmic drawing can produce images that feel at once systematic and alive.