Mark Elsmore RI

Waiting for a New Etruria



The Potteries Stoke-on-Trent is a place of creativity.  The economic decline of the pottery industry is heart breaking.  Gone are the days when generations of families worked for the same company.  So much artistry and skill has been lost. Josiah Wedgwood, the Father of the Pottery Industry fulfilled a dream to create the new Etruria in Staffordshire. He successfully blended the beauty of ancient Italy with the industrialisation of his day.  My painting is about unemployment.  The Wedgwood bronze statue outside Stoke railway station is a reminder of glories past. The young man is looking away, but looking to the future. Mock Jacobean brickwork in the background suggests a link between the two (a thought wave?). The man stands waiting for something to happen. Waiting for a new Etruria.


Waiting for a new Etruria