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I had fun with a homework assignment in a painting class where we chose a figure painting composition we liked and created a painting based on it. I chose a painting called -The Arnolfini Portrait- by Jan van Eyck painted in 1434.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jan-van-eyck-the-arnolfini-portrait

That is the reason for the different heights and for the pump nozzles and air meter being in the center. It was to repeat the circular composition shown with the chandelier, the faces and the hands. That circle composition is repeated with the mirror/nehi clock in the center.

I loved grape Nehi growing up and I remember this clock from a store us kids went to for our soda. We could see it glowing in the night when we drove by. Bob Richards, I wanted to get your Veedol in there so the can is the puppy substitute. Like the woman's face in the painting, the Mobile globe is the focal point.

You can tell I cannot paint straight plumb lines nor round circles...I also know I messed up with the Mobil pump plate 'a' (along with some other things I am sure) which brings me to my question. Why is there a different font for the glass a's compared the metal signage on the pumps? Wouldn't they have made them the same if they dated from the same time?

This painting is pure fantasy and was fun to paint. As you can see, I've got petroliana on my brain, even in a portrait class.

Nice!

OH, WOW!....THAT TURNED OUT SUPER FROM OUR EARLIER PM'ing DISCUSSION.

Very nice!

Love the painting, Nicole.

Mobil used two different "a" styles in "Mobilgas" in both signage and script top gas pump inserts. One with a horizontal line across the top was by far the most used, and a few with the style of a circle and a vertical line on the right.

Hi Nicole,

Very nice and I'm happy to see that you still post and are evidently gaining interest in this stuff.

Regarding the styles of the "a" I have heard them referred to as "open a" and "closed a".I think the "open a"is the top one in Jim's pics.But since I do a lot more Texaco a Mobil guy may correct me.Later.

love this thread! thanx for sharing!

I believe the open A is the old one and dates 1931-1948 and the close A dates from 1948-1955 according to (Guide To Gasoline Logos ) book Wayne Henderson and Scott Benjamin

Nice job, Nicole!

Thanks for the info...I just scrolled though all the mobilgas pumps I saw in the picture gallery and all of them have the closed A's. Oh well...

Also I did do some editing and left stuff out because I was starting to go nuts trying to do details.

Nice Job!! That looks great.

You did an excellent job, Nicole. Ofcourse I am especially partial to the best object in the assignment (IMO).... the Veedol can.... LOL

If you ever do a Veedol can version of Warhol's Campbell Soup Art, please let me know....

Nicole, you have been a very classy addition to this website. Thank you for your presence. Mitch (No insult intended to anybody else.)

Mitch,
I feel very honored, this coming from a gentleman such as you.

Someone has asked so here it is...the process:

First cut a piece of paper the same size (9 x 12) and pencil in the idea

Second draw in charcoal on the canvas, then paint the lines. BTW my camera setting was wrong, I work on gray toned canvas.

The gray was too light (the unpainted areas look white), so I want to cover up that brightness with paint. I usually want the color I start with to influence what goes over it. For example I never paint with pure black (it puts a 'hole' in the canvas) so I want a rich blue to be part of the 'black' in the Polly pump. And to make the pump colors rich, I under paint with the complementary colors.

Then I start adding the top colors. If you see the mottled look on the red pump, that's the green showing through, giving the paint some depth. You can really see what the green under painting does on the fire truck on my toy painting (non-petro) the pump has a thicker layer of reds over it and the under color is more subtle. In other areas I mixed colors wet-on-wet.

The 'sky' is dark as I originally thought I would do a night scene, but changed it in the final painting

great stuff! ty! keep the artwork coming!!

Beautiful work, Nicole!
You did good on the Mobilgas shield and globe - the blue border shield always has "a" closed a (1946-62) and the original globes always have an open "a" !

In addition, the open a is the older of the two fonts, seldom used post WWII.

I could ramble about the shields and their a's for a long time, and have done so in the past... ;-)

All the best!
Claes

Thank you everyone.

I've been debating about changing that a, but I think I will keep it as it is. If I fix that, I'll have fix everything!