Hidden Ridge Gallery - Latest Product Updates from Alan Bean

The Eagle Is Headed Home

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:04 +0100

Lunar Module Eagle has just made the first lunar liftoff. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are ascending from Tranquility Base to transfer themselves and their treasure of moon rocks to the command module and head for home.

On the Apollo 12 mission, I recall looking out the window during lift-off and seeing a ring of bright orange, silver and black flashes of light expanding rapidly outward, glints from pieces of metal-foil insulation blasted from the descent stage by the ascent engine.

Size:	24"w x 16"h		Edition:	150
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Available at publisher

Price: $495.00

Fast Times on the Ocean of Storms

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 23:52:23 +0100

"I painted myself almost flying over the surface of the moon," says artist Alan Bean. "Running on the moon isn't like running on earth, mostly because the pull of gravity is only one-sixth of what we feel down here. I was light on my feet, much as I expected. When I pushed off with one foot, there was a long pause before I landed on the other foot, like running in slow motion. I could feel my leg muscles completely relax as I glided along to the next stop. I seemed to float just above the surface.

I vividly recall one instance as I was running near a large crater. I felt I must look like a gazelle, leaping long distances with each bound. I looked over at my partner, Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad, as he ran nearby. His leaps were graceful and he was space-borne for a long time but, to my surprise, he wasn't rising very high or leaping far at all. Then I realized that in the moon's light gravity, we did not have the traction to push hard backwards with our boots. I wasn't leaping like a gazelle―it only felt that way.

Running on the Ocean of Storms was relatively easy and a whole lot of fun. I was always in a hurry to get to the next exploration site because, like many things in life, there was so much to do and so little time to do it."

Size:	28"w x 22"h		Edition:	100
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Available at publisher

Price: $295.00

Apollo Moonscape

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:04:41 +0100

"The Moon was a stark and otherworldly place¨Dgray soil, gray rocks and black sky as far as you can see," explains Alan Bean on "Apollo Moonscape." "When I first began painting the Moon, I painted it exactly as I remembered it as an astronaut, much the way it looks in the photographs. But a literal record of this black-and-white world doesn't communicate what it felt like to be and work there. To the astronaut-engineer-scientist in me, the paintings looked correct. But they didn't completely satisfy the explorer artist in me, the part that loves color and impressionist paintings."

"Over the years, I noticed that the paintings that I find most interesting depict nature in more beautiful hues, and with more color variety, than I can see in the world around me. I decided to make a series of color studies inspired by Monet. These paintings were done over several years in an attempt to find the limits of colors that could be used to realistically portray the Moon. I chose a photo of Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan at work in the Taurus-Littrow region as my scene."

"A number of these paintings, particularly the greenish-gray one which was the first, have about four or five other paintings under them which I did as I tried to develop the color scheme. I tried to show the heat of the Moon, the feeling of the sun, so I painted one that looks more reddish to suggest the heat. I began to use violets in the craters and the dirt to make it quite beautiful instead of just gray. The other two paintings are a little more advanced and continue towards my work today. I think my role as an artist is not to duplicate nature but to interpret it in ways that are beautiful and important to the artist and, hopefully, to other people."

The four paintings assembled into a single presentation give Alan Bean's "Apollo Moonscape, An Explorer Artist's Vision" a Pop Art feel while presenting a wonderfully graphic example of the artist's visual journey. You'll have your choice of either a fine art canvas or paper giclee of the work, each signed by Apollo 12 astronaut, moonwalker and explorer Alan Bean. Own your own piece of art history, the first paintings of another world by an artist who was actually there!

Price: $0.00

Ceremony on the Plain

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 01:22:10 +0100

"Falcon is on the plain at Hadley," reported the excited Apollo 15 Commander David R. Scott on July 30, 1971. Dave and lunar module pilot Jim Irwin were on the surface of the moon at a site rich with scientific potential. They would be able to make observations and gather samples for some three and a half days and would have for their use the first car on the moon, an electric dune buggy.

But first, the matter of ceremony. Planting the flag, or perhaps a stick or spear before flags were created, has been a tradition in exploration since ancient times, and moon exploration was no exception. They couldn't, however, count on the wind blowing the flag since there is no air on the moon. So they used a small metal snap-up curtain rod along the top edge of the flag.

Why had we gone to the moon at all? Was it worth the cost? There may be no single answer to these questions which we must all decide for ourselves. The spirit of exploration is either in your heart or it is not. Dave Scott spoke eloquently when he said, "As I stand here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I try to realize there is a fundamental truth to our nature. Man must explore. And this is exploration at its greatest."

Size:	24"w x 16"h		Edition:	150
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Available at publisher

Price: $275.00

Lunar Grand Prix

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:57:01 +0100

"Apollo 16 Commander John Young is putting the lunar rover through a full test," says artist Alan Bean about Lunar Grand Prix. "This was the second Apollo mission with the rover onboard and the goal was to allow Young to evaluate the performance of the Rover in the light gravity on the dusty, cratered and rock surface of the Moon."

John Young later said, "The tendency was to drive wide open or very close to that and take what you got. The best reference to speed control was the speedometer as I really didn't have a feel for the difference between 7 and 10 kilometers per hour." Later in the test, Young demonstrated a sharp turn at max speed, about 10 kilometers-per-hour. "I made the Rover end break out to show the engineers how it looked. It was no problem as all I had to do was cut back like I do when driving in snow. I didn't get up to any great speed, maybe 10 clicks at the most, but the terrain around there was too rough and rocky for that kind of foolishness."

His companion, Astronaut Charlie Duke, filmed the scene with the 16mm data acquisition camera normally mounted on the Rover, but hand-held temporarily to document this drive. He told Houston at the time, " ... man, Indy has never seen a driver like this."

Size:	26"w x 16"h	Edition:	95
InformArt:	Not listed	Status:	Available at publisher
Gallery Wrap:	Available for $30 - Offered for FREE by Hidden Ridge Gallery

Price: $495.00

Some Tools Of Our Trade

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:03 +0100

Apollo 16, launched on April 16, 1972, was the fifth mission to land on the moon the first to land in a highlands area. Commander John Young and Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke spent almost three days on the moon and brought back 94.7 kg of lunar samples.

"I painted Astronaut John Young at work collecting samples," says artist and Astronaut Alan Bean. "He had tools to dig, drive, hammer, rake, and drill; and bags to collect and identify each sample."

Creating the suite of tools and containers for the moon samples was not as simple as it first seemed. Engineers had to worry about compromising future scientific analysis with contamination from the equipment. Also, space suit gloves were bulky, movement of the thumb and fingers were hard to coordinate, and there was almost no sense of touch. The specialized tools on Apollo 16 allowed the two astronauts to accomplish their mission. As Charlie Duke reported to Earth during his second extra-vehicular activity (EVA), "John and I found a use for every tool we've got."

This SmallWorks Fine Art Edition is a finely-tuned gift for the space enthusiast, or a perfect complement to collector's of our 2010 release: John Young Leaps into History.

Size:	11"w x 12"h	Edition:	125
InformArt:	Not Listed	Status:	Available at publisher
Gallery Wrap:	Included

Price: $265.00

Jim Irwin - Indomitable Astronaut

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:03 +0100

"Jim Irwin, Colonel, United States Air Force, had a brilliant but challenging career. His is a story of difficult challenges met, and with hard work and perseverance, overcome. After battling illness and severe injuries for ten years, Jim Irwin found himself standing on the Moon.

After leaving NASA, Jim authored a number of books about his life and about his experiences. He gave me one of those books as a gift and I treasure it today. He inscribed ‘Decisions determined destination! Your grateful brother, Jim Irwin, Apollo 15.'"

Size:	9"w x 12"h		Edition:	75
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Sold out at publisher

Price: $0.00

A Most Beautiful Moon

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:02 +0100

"I began several studies a number of years ago to record my memories of seeing the moon close up. Years later I decided to rework some of the studies as color exercises. With A Most Beautiful Moon, I tried to retain some of the reflected-earth light-shadow effect while adding other earth colors. I'm spending most of my time recording an event that will never happen again in our history: humankind's first visit to another world."

Size:	10"w x 12"h		Edition:	150
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Sold out at publisher

Price: $0.00

John Young Leaps Into History

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 18:30:59 +0100

"You feel this way when you're finally on the Moon!" says artist and Apollo 11 astronaut Alan Bean. "It's the culmination of all you've studied and worked for since you were a little kid.

"John has jumped straight up about 3 feet or so. On Earth, this would have been impossible because John weighs 160 pounds and the suit and the backpack weigh 150 pounds, but on the Moon everything (including John) weighed only one-sixth as much. Someday there will be athletic contests on the Moon, maybe even Solar System Olympics and many astonishing records will be set."

Apollo 16, April 16-27, 1972, was Young's fourth space flight but his first lunar exploration. Young was Spacecraft Commander accompanied by Astronauts Ken Mattingly and Charlie Duke. Young and Duke set up scientific equipment and explored the lunar highlands at Descartes in the Lunar Rover.

Price: $0.00

Is Anyone Out There?

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 18:30:59 +0100

Since we first walked erect, it has been a conviction of mankind that in some fashion, someone, something, has inhabited the heavens. The Space Race itself was as political as it was strategic, yet at its soul, what captured the hearts and minds of the world at large was the possibility of coming one step closer to answering the question stirring within us all for millennia - "Is anyone out there?"

Forty years ago, on November, 14, 1969, Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean, with fellow Apollo 12 astronauts, Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Command Module Pilot Richard Gordon, left Earth for the Moon. Five days later on Nov. 19th, Bean stepped off the lunar module Intrepid and onto the Moon's Ocean of Storms and became the fourth human to walk on another planet. Yet for all the training, for all the data, for all the simulations and discipline, one of the simplest and most human of questions came to his mind, "Is anyone out there?".

We did send an artist to the Moon and it is no small matter of pride that we are able to call him a member of The Greenwich Workshop Family of Artists. Alan Bean paints the Apollo missions from a perspective no other can: as one who has been there. His paintings were on display in a one-man exhibition at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. "Is Anyone Out There?" was a center piece of the exhibit and perhaps its most commented upon painting. We selected it to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Alan Bean's lunar flight because it epitomizes that simple thought that took man to the Moon, "Is there anybody out there?".

At 40" x 30", the commemorative MasterWork Fine Art Giclee Canvas is the largest reproduction we have offered of Alan Bean's artwork. It is set at an edition of 69 to commemorate the year he set foot on the Moon. A Fine Art Paper Giclee edition is set at 244 pieces, the duration, in hours, of the Apollo 12 mission from lift-off to landing. Both editions are personally signed by astronaut, moonwalker and the first artist on another world, Captain Alan Bean.

Too often, the opportunity to possess a piece of history passes us by. Going to the Moon will stand as one of mankind's greatest accomplishments: that first giant step into the heavens. Twelve men have gazed back the quarter-million miles to the Earth from the surface of Moon. And only Alan Bean, through his paintings of the Apollo program, can place us there beside him.

Price: $0.00

First Men: Neil Armstrong

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 18:30:58 +0100

The work of artist Alan Bean conveys the sense of space travel not only through subject and color but also texture. The tools that once helped him explore the moon, now help him put the moon's stamp on many of his paintings. Prior to painting the image, Bean covers the painting's surface with a texturing material. He then uses exact replicas of his Moon boots to make footprints across this surface that are just like all the Apollo boot prints remaining on the moon today. Next he uses the same geology hammer he worked with on the Apollo 12 mission to dig into the painting's surface. Finally, a sharp edged bit from one of the core tubes is used to make round indentations in the surface.

"I guess every astronaut wanted to be the first man on the Moon. I know I did," says Alan Bean. "And if we couldn't be the first, we at least wanted to be one of the first. Apollo 11's crew got the opportunity to make the first attempt. Neil, Buzz and Mike flew a perfect flight and went into the history books; but all 400,000 Americans that helped make Apollo a success are in that history, too.

"I think this painting is exactly how Astronaut Neil Armstrong looked as he took the now-iconic photo of his lunar companion, Buzz Aldrin," says the artist. "It is the image we would see in Buzz's gold visor in my painting First Men¯Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin¯if we could look close enough."

Price: $0.00

Feelin' Fine

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 18:30:58 +0100

"This relaxed, impressionist astronaut image is one of my favorites," says Bean. "I felt just like this so many times on the moon - even though I didn't have time to stop and ‘assume the position.' I think it takes a certain attitude of cockiness to be an astronaut, and it's hard to show those emotions when I am behind the gold visors."

Price: $0.00

Armstrong, Aldrin

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:03 +0100

Apollo 11's lunar module, Eagle, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard, is just about to touch down on the Sea of Tranquility, July 20, 1969. The descent engine is firing in order to slow the descent rate to ensure a gentle landing as Armstrong searches for a level area on the surface of the moon.

Size:	9"w x 14"h		Edition:	150
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Sold out at publisher

Price: $0.00

The Hammer And The Feather

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:04 +0100

Countersigned by Dave Scott

Against the backdrop of the lunar module Falcon, Apollo 15 astronaut Dave Scott illustrates the hand of the Italian Renaissance on one of our century's greatest achievements. The moon's lack of atmosphere provided the ideal conditions to confirm what Galileo Galilei had concluded centuries before, as both hammer and feather, dropped simultaneously, contacted the moon's surface at the same time. To the principle that in a vacuum objects fall at the same rate regardless of mass, Scott was able to report, "How about that, this proves that Mr. Galileo was correct in his findings."

The Hammer and the Feather is complemented by pencil sketches of Scott and the artist printed in the margin.

Size:	20"w x 25.5"h		Edition:	650
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Sold out at publisher

Price: $0.00

That's How It Felt

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:04 +0100

"'That's How it Felt to Walk on the Moon' is my answer to the question I've been asked most often since November 19, 1969. I felt a long, long way from the people and places I love the most. It seems unreal . . . impossible. From time to time, I would look down and say to myself, 'this is the moon.' And then, I would look up at a small, beautiful, bright blue and white sphere hanging in the mysterious, luminous black sky and think, 'that is the earth.'

"Words have never expressed what I experienced, but I think that in this work I have captured some of the excitement and exhilaration I felt. I wanted an eye-arresting image, something to communicate the excitement of being on the moon, so I began experimenting with 'exciting' colors-bright primary tones. But that didn't feel right. Then, as I worked, I began to see a rainbow effect in the layers of paint. That feeling, of all colors being mixed but also harmonizing, finally allowed me to tell how it felt to walk on the moon."

Size:	19.5"w x 28"h		Edition:	850
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Sold out at publisher

Price: $0.00

Straightening Our Stripes

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:04 +0100

July 20, 1969-The Sea of Tranquility. Neil Armstrong's first step may have been for all mankind but the Apollo program that put Neil and Buzz Aldrin on the moon was an American one. To many astronauts, the flag represented the best efforts of a nation that rose to and met President John F. Kennedy's challenge of landing a man on the moon.

Size:	27"w x 17.5"h		Edition:	550
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Sold out at publisher

Price: $0.00

Right Stuff Field Geologists

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:03 +0100

The Apollo program was not only about getting to the moon and back, but making the best possible scientific observations once there. "Do we take test pilots and teach them geology or do we take geologists and teach them to fly?" was the question. The answer, in typical NASA fashion, was to create a team of both. This image of Apollo 17 Commander and skilled naval aviator Eugene A. Cernan handing yet another sample bag to Lunar Module Pilot and Doctor of Geology Harrison "Jack" Schmitt on the Taurus-Littrow Valley floor, represents the epitome of this exploration philosophy. On December 13, 1972, when Gene and Jack left the moon, they carried with them 240 pounds of lunar samples-more than any other mission could boast.

Countersigned by Gene Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt.

Size:	25.5"w x 16.5"h		Edition:	550
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Available at publisher

Price: $495.00

Red, White And Blue

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:03 +0100

"The space program represents what is truly great with America," says artist Alan Bean. "When I was an astronaut I felt each day that I had accepted a responsibility to do the right thing professionally in everything that I did. I was not alone in this as I saw this 'right stuff' code everywhere. It was a good feeling to know that all those around me were dedicated to making our nation's space exploration effort as good as it could possibly be. This red, white and blue feeling and theme carried over into everything we did. If everyone at NASA cut ourselves I believe we would all bleed red, white and blue."

Size:	13"w x 11"h		Edition:	75
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Sold out at publisher

Price: $0.00

Reaching For The Stars

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:03 +0100

In his book Apollo: An Eyewitness Account, Alan Bean says of Reaching for the Stars, "In one sense this is a painting of a universal astronaut, symbolizing everyone who flew in Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Apollo-Soyuz. It also represents those who fly on space shuttles and will fly on a space station and on future missions only dreamed about at this time. The astronaut is an emissary of us all, soaring away from our planet earth... But in a broader view [Reaching for the Stars symbolizes] all of us who posses a dedicated and adventurous spirit no matter what our interests or age."

Countersigned by astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz programs.

Size:	27"w x 34"h		Edition:	1500
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Available at publisher

Price: $2,200.00

Pete And Me

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 17:27:04 +0100

"Of all astronauts who have ever put on a space suit, Pete Conrad is my absolute favorite,” says artist and astronaut Alan Bean. “He was the best seat-of-the-pants man I have ever known. His instincts were usually right, he stayed on course and he always gave his best shot. On the flight of Apollo 12, he knew when to hustle and when to slow down and enjoy the view. In this painting, Pete is taking my photograph with his chest-mounted Hasselblad camera. We used the camera mostly for scientific documentation, but as often as we could think of it, we also used the camera as tourists in a strange and wonderful world. Note the cuff-mounted checklist that told us what we were to do next and kept us on schedule.”

Size:	10"w x 12.5"h		Edition:	100
InformArt:	Not Listed		Status:	Sold out at publisher

Price: $0.00