Day of the Painter (1960)

A gent arrives at the end of a rickety old pier and places a large piece of white cardboard on the mud flat below. Then he prepares a dozen or so tins of what look like standard house paint, stirs a little with the end of his brush then proceeds to just lob the contents straight from the cans onto the “canvas” below. With two of his friends looking on almost as bemusedly as the birds milling about on the water, this man creates something that I believe they call splash and drip. His work of art is then retrieved from the ground and cut up into squares just in time for the arrival of a small seaplane. This comes from the “Galerie des Abstractes” - New York and Paris, don’t you know - from which emerges a dapper gentleman. He peruses this collection - but will he buy anything? It’s quite a jolly little satire, this, poking a bit of fun at the superciliousness of art and the artiste whilst also quite clearly demonstrating that anyone can have a go, and that any beauty created is in the eye of the beholder! It’s not the most environmentally friendly film you will ever watch, as you might notice at the end - but it’s tongue is in it’s cheek and though a little repetitively scored, is still quite enjoyable.