British Pathe

Lambeth, London.

C/U of a box of eggs, several glass jars and a small sieve on a kitchen table. C/U of Francis Plummer's hands as he picks up an egg and cracks it with a knife. Plummer gently squeezes the egg's white through the sieve onto a saucer. M/S of Plummer emptying the remaining yolk...

Lambeth, London.

C/U of a box of eggs, several glass jars and a small sieve on a kitchen table. C/U of Francis Plummer's hands as he picks up an egg and cracks it with a knife. Plummer gently squeezes the egg's white through the sieve onto a saucer. M/S of Plummer emptying the remaining yolk into a tea towel he is holding. The narrator explains that Plummer is an artist - "talented yet struggling". Plummer never eats these eggs but uses them to paint with. C/U of jam jar on the table. Plummer holds a saucer with the yolk on above the jar. He pierces the yolk with a small knife, squeezes it to release the fluid into the jar and places the empty yolk skin on the saucer. M/S of Plummer tipping acetic acid onto a spoon to add to the jar containing a mixture of yolk and colouring to preserve the egg. C/U of Plummer's face. Panning shot to Plummer's hands stirring the gooey mixture. C/U of the mixture being transferred to a smaller jar and blended with green and brown pigment to create paint - an ancient Greek method called egg tempera. According to the narrator, Plummer spends more per week on eggs than on his regular diet of "brown bread, porridge and vitamin pills".

Panning shot of Plummer, still stirring the mixture, walking across his studio to a painting in progress and a young woman, Felicity Payne, sitting in an arm chair posing as his model. He sits down in front of his painting, picks up his brushes and continues his work. C/U of Plummer painting. Close up of Felicity's face. Narrator comments that Plummer's work bares a strong resemblance to that of William Blake. C/U of the brush being dipped into the pale yellow egg paint. C/U of the painting - a realistic head and shoulders portrait of the model. Various shots of the artist working at the portrait.

Various C/U shots of Plummer's previous work - portraits of a semi-nude muscle bound young man holding an piece of wood, an elderly black man ("The Jamaican"), a middle aged woman with a bent nose ("Woman with Black Hair") and Adam and Eve ("Adam and Eve"). Plummer once earned his living as an anatomical illustrator for medical journals and much of his later work is "preoccupied with harmonies and shapes that can be developed from the human form". He is a former student of the Royal Academy and a winner of the Leverhulme Award.

M/S of the artist once again working on the egg paint portrait in the studio - "an idea from the past exploited today by a young man with an eye to the future".