Bean there, done that

“I want people to share the spirit of Apollo…”

Alan Bean

Alan Bean was the fourth person to walk on the moon. He is also my daughter Trina’s favourite astronaut. He achieved so much during his life, but he had one great regret. He never had the chance to sketch or paint on the moon. Bean’s urge to to paint and sketch emerged during his early days as a test pilot. He just wanted to intimately document the incredible things he witnessed, so much so that he took evening art classes in between his hazardous aviation missions. Indeed his desire to produce art intensified after his return from the moon. Almost immediately he began to paint in earnest. His reference material was the library of Apollo moon photographs taken by he and his colleagues. Uniquely and secretly, Bean began to include actual fibres from his spacesuits and the moon dust on them into the background textures of his pieces. Each of his paintings is so much more than a photograph, they contain emotion, lived experience and stuff from the actual moon. #lunarurbansketcher #letsmakelemonade