Synopsis

The setting is a wharf on a muddy cove somewhere in New England. The only building on the wharf is a small shack in which the protagonist, a would be Jackson Pollock, keeps his painting equipment - a wheel barrow, many gallon cans of paint, and various off-beat painting implements.

With an aire of professionalism from start to finish, he brings a 4x8' slab of plywood down the pier and drops it about 8 ft. down onto the mud. Then he drops various colors of paint from the wharf, right out of the can, onto his "canvas". Climbing down and slogging in the mud, he further spreads the paint with his implements. Finished, he brings the slab up onto the wharf and smokes his pipe while he lets his work dry. He sawes the slab into picture size squares and moves them onto a low dock at the end of the wharf, then waits. A seaplane lands, pulls up to the dock, and a well dressed Frenchman gets out, looks over the squares, choses one, loads it into the plane, and takes off. The painter throws the rest out into the water where they float away.

Cast

Actor: William "Bill" McDonald (Frenchman)

Notes

Although it won the Academy Award, this film is very hard to find. Only some universities have a copy. It's not available online or on DVD.

1 film reel (14 min.) : sd. col., 16 mm.

Some copies are stored at university libraries:

• http://www.worldcat.org/title/day-of-a-painter/oclc/740918485
• http://www.worldcat.org/title/day-of-the-painter/oclc/7451239

• Cleveland State University Library
• Ball State University Library
• University of Michigan