Gypsy Artists (1956)

Artists Sven and Juanita Berlin work on their paintings beside their caravan in the New Forest. New Forest, Hampshire. L/S of a gypsy caravan in a clearing; Sven Berlin is sawing wood outside and a goat snuffles about the ground. M/S and C/U of Sven sawing; his wife Juanita sits by a camp fire peeling potatoes; their small son, Jasper, feeds something to the goat; a black kettle hangs over the fire. Commentator tells us the couple are successful artists who live as gypsies in a horse-drawn caravan. Sven adds some more wood to the fire; Juanita hangs a pot with the potatoes in it over the fire, then walks over to an armchair beside the caravan. She changes her long orange coat for an old black one and puts on a slouch hat, then sits on the chair to take up her position for a portrait Sven is painting. Commentator talks of how the couple came to this lifestyle: "Civilisation, they felt, hemmed them in... pushed them around". Sven adjusts her hat then carries on working on the painting - it's quite bohemian. While posing, Juanita works on her painting of horses. M/S as she picks up her palette and takes her paints and canvas over to a tree; sitting there to paint the horses in more detail. We see some lovely New Forest ponies eating hay as she works. C/U of two of the horses with lovely long hair! Note: On file is a news cutting from the Southern Daily Echo about the Berlins and their way of life