This is red hot

Sometimes it is good to get back to basics – and for illustrators, the primary colours of red, yellow and blue are the most basic tools in the box.
For a new rolling exhibition at St George’s in Bristol, studio Jamaica Street Artists challenged its illustrators to respond to the colour triptych – starting in September with red.

’The exhibition’s strength lies in the illustrators’ different approaches to their work and the theme,’ says Gemma Brace, the studio co-ordinator at Jamaica Street Artists.

Works exhibited range from Hannah McVicar’s horticultural-inspired screen-prints to the Norwegian-inspired folk art of Bjørn Rune Lie.

Food illustrator Emma Dibben has created the iconic Tabasco bottle and a traditional Spanish spice tin, incorporating both the colour red and a play on the idea of ’red hot’; painter and illustrator Rose Sanderson has addressed red’s symbolic role as a visual representation for different emotional states, such as love and passion; and comic animator and illustrator Tom Mead has created an architectural cityscape of London in deep red, symbolising the antagonism and distrust he feels towards the city’s ’hierarchical rat race’, according to Brace.

The exhibition theme’s, simplicity, grew from a need to create unity and showcase a variety of different styles, explains Brace.

’It also highlights the associative power of colour and will hopefully engage its audience in making their own connections and interpretations,’ she adds.

Red, Yellow, Blue is on at St George’s, Great George Street, Bristol BS1 5RR from 8 September and runs for one year