Fort Worth native Alan Bean is still moonstruck by his lunar mission nearly 37 years ago.

FILE 2005/Staff photo

During his 18 years as an astronaut, he walked on the moon as a crew member of Apollo XII. He later set a record while commander of a 59-day flight aboard Skylab Mission II.

Now a Houston resident, the retired astronaut spends his days painting scenes from his time in space and on the moon.

The retired Navy captain is Alan to his friends, and he is often introduced as Astronaut Bean when he makes one of his regular public appearances.

"It's showbiz," he said.

Mr. Bean rises at 5 a.m., exercises and then paints from about 8 a.m. to about 6 p.m. He takes time out for meals and a now-necessary afternoon siesta.

"I do take a nap in the afternoon; I'm 74," he said. "I don't have the energy I used to have."

Mr. Bean began dabbling in art as a test pilot, when he took lessons to unwind.

"Art is a difficult, difficult skill, but the more you work at it, the more you like it," he said. "You can get almost magical results."

He tried painting earthly landscapes and portraits but soon gravitated to things that fly.

"Even when I got back from the moon – on the weekends – I didn't paint space things," he said. "People were after me to do it, and finally one weekend I did."

He started with a picture of Pete Conrad, the astronaut with whom he explored the moon's Ocean of Storms.

"After about three or four hours I thought, it's just like they say, you ought to paint what you know," he said. "The reason you know it is you like it."

Mr. Bean is currently painting a scene depicting astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the moon. His process involves re-creating the scene with one-seventh scale models, which he arranges just so. He paints from photographs he makes of the scene.

"It'll look like I was standing there telling this story," Mr. Bean said.

There's no canvas for the pilot-painter, who uses aircraft-grade plywood from Scandinavia.

"I use plywood that they make real wooden airplanes out of," he said. "It has something to do with what I do.

"It's like 16 ply and it's only 5 millimeters thick," he said. "It's different, but it's appropriate for what I do."

Mr. Bean uses detail that few others would know. The space suits were custom made for the missions, the astronauts and their habits.

"They just look different, just like you can tell a friend of yours is walking down the street before you can see their face," Mr. Bean said. "You see their body shape, the way they move ..."

Each figure is posed to catch each individual astronaut's character. He uses flying jargon to describe changes as he arranges the models.

"Here's one where Neil's left arm is up high," he said, referring to Mr. Armstrong. "Here's one about two o'clock, here's one about two-thirty ..."

Mr. Bean usually paints on commission. If he does one on spec, he lists it with a space art company.

"If you want one of this frontier, this space age, then I'm pretty much the guy," he said. "There's probably a lot of artists out there that can probably paint a lot better than I can, but there's not anybody that's been there but me."

Mr. Bean was born in Wheeler, Texas, and graduated from R.L. Paschal High School in Fort Worth.

He began to excel as a junior at the University of Texas at Austin.

Mr. Bean's work is full of emotion.

"I just sort of relive it," he said.

E-mail jsimnacher@dallasnews.com