The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon by Dean Robbins

The Astronaut Who Painted the Moon is about Alan Bean, NASA astronaut who flew on Apollo 12 and who is also know for his artwork portraying his space experiences. In this picture book by Dean Robbins, Bean, after blasting off in a rocket to take him to the moon, reminisces about dreaming about becoming a pilot someday. He took navy flight training and wished he could paint what he saw. In art class, Bean learned about patterns and forms and experimented with bold bright colours. He wanted his art to convey to people how he felt.

Bean's spacecraft took four days to travel the 240,000 miles to the Moon. On the Moon, Bean found it had its own kind of beauty, "Gray dust as far as he could see. Thousands of black craters. Hard white sunlight. And everything perfectly still."

Bean enjoyed his time on the Moon and was puzzled and entranced by its uniqueness and difference to Earth. When he tried to explain what it was like he found words were simply not enough. To convey to friends and family just what it was like, Bean began to paint the Moon and the astronauts. He used unusual colours, stamped them with astronaut boots, even sprinkled dust from his spacesuits on his art! His artwork was appealing and eventually came to be displayed in galleries. Alan Bean had succeeded in conveying to others the stark beauty he experienced on the Moon.

Discussion
The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon gives young readers an inside look at the remarkable life of Alan Bean, astronaut and painter extraordinaire.

Alan LaVern Bean was born on March 15, 1932 in Wheeler, Texas. Bean attended the University of Texas, where he was a Navy ROTC student, earning a degree in aeronautical engineering. After completing flight training Bean became part of Attack Squadron 44 based at Jacksonville, Florida. In 1960, Bean attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Maryland. His instructor was Pete Conrad who would later be his commander on Apollo 12. Bean was a test pilot who flew several different types of test aircraft.

Bean missed being selected for the second group of NASA astronauts but was selected in the third group in October of 1963. He was part of the backup crew for Gemini 10 and Apollo 9. On the Apollo 12 mission, Bean was the Lunar Command Module pilot. The launch saw the rocket hit twice by lightning which scrambled the electrical systems but the mission went forward without complications after Bean restored the telemetry system. Apollo 12 with Bean and Pete Conrad landed on the Moon's Ocean of Storms while Dick Gordon remained in the command module orbiting the moon. On November 19, 1969,  Bean was the fourth man to walk on the surface of the Moon.

In 1973, Bean returned to space as the Commander of the second crew to inhabit the Skylab space station built by the Americans. He was also part of the Space Shuttle program, but in the capacity of training astronauts. This gave Bean the time to work a bit on his artistic endeavours. Bean retired from NASA in 1981 and passed away in 2018, the last crew member of Apollo 12.

Bean was overwhelmed by his experience on the Moon's surface. Having taking art courses before he became an astronaut, Bean decided to retire in 1981 and devote his time to painting. He wanted to convey this experiences on the Moon through his art. As a scientist Bean would have had to paint the Moon grey, but as an artist he could consider the use of colour. And that's what he worked on - how to paint the Moon in colours that would work, while still portraying in realistically.

Bean had never seriously considered becoming an artist until a friend suggested he try this after his Skylab mission. He preferred to work in acrylics. What makes Bean's artwork even more interesting and unique is that the base coat of all his paintings contain pieces of the flag or name tag sewn on his space suit, pieces of the Kaplan gold foil from the command module, and even charred pieces from the command module. Readers can learn more about Alan Bean's artistic process at alanbeangallery.com Select Alan Bean - Artist and Astronaut which links to an essay by Ulrich Lotzmann about Bean's NASA career and his technique as an artist.

Artist Sean Rubin attempts to capture Bean's style of painting through his own illustrations in The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon. Rubin uses crosshatching to provide some texture as well as unusual colours such as vibrant purples, reds and blues - colours not found on the Moon, in his illustrations, mimicking to some extent Bean's portrayal of the Moon and the astronauts. The cover which shows Bean painting on the moon, while not realistic (he only painted back on Earth!) conveys how Bean himself viewed his life, "...as an artist who was once an astronaut."

Robbins includes a short section on Alan Bean along with some of his paintings based on photographs taken during the Moon walks, as well as A Brief History Of Space Exploration in the form of a timeline.

The Astronaut Who Painted The Moon will be of interest to those doing a space unit, those interested in moon exploration and the Apollo program as well as STEAM activities as this book melds both science and art. Well presented and highly recommended.

Book Details:

The Astronaut who Painted The Moon by Dean Robbins
New York: Orchard Books         2019