Al Bean Painting John Young

Canon PowerShot S90

ƒ/2

6 mm

1/200

400

In one of his largest paintings, Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean painted John Young “as he stood proudly on the Moon” during Apollo 16.

Alan left NASA in 1981 to pursue his lifelong passion for art. Inspired by the impressionists, he studied under contemporary masters. He prepares his painting surface with a heavy plaster-like coating of thick acrylic paste. While still wet, he textures and imprints the surface with all manner of his lunar tools, including his lunar hammer and a core tube bit, and lunar overshoes.

Alan titled this one American Success Story.

3 responses to “Al Bean Painting John Young”

jurvetson

Jun 19, 2011 at 1:51 am

I was looking at this painting last night as I read some interesting transcript excerpts from the lunar module as it lifted off the moon with Young and Duke on board and rendezvoused with the CSM in orbit with Mattingly eagerly awaiting their arrival.

This image was the cover of the recent Heritage auction catalog:

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solerena

Jun 19, 2011 at 9:45 pm

nice picture… makes me think…Gagarin, Young and Duke and other pioneers experienced something nobody has ever experienced before. Wish I could understand the transcipt better, it seems that there are some cultural nuances in this communication stream which are a bit unclear to me:) It is great that they could be playful and creative in a time of this amazing one of a kind challenge…and even while risking their lives… it seems that were not taking themselves too seriously… a wonderful attitude… when people take themselves to seriously, they canot escape gravity:):) Usually all sorts of gurus together with politicians take themselves veryyyyy seriously:)

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ceaseless reward

Jul 5, 2011 at 11:49 am

Great composition 😉

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Al Bean Painting John Young

3 responses to “Al Bean Painting John Young”

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