Richard Gordon Junior

Before I say anything else, the mystery has been solved. Someone on LinkedIn worked out that the twelve subjects in this collection are the twelve men (at the time of writing) to have visited the moon but never set foot on it. As well as the command module pilots of the six successful moon landings, this includes crew members of Apollos 8, 10 and 13, all of which visited the moon without landing. Of the nine seats on those three missions, two were occupied by Jim Lovell, who we’ve already seen. And the two crew members from Apollo 10 that I skipped, John Young and Gene Cernan lost their places in this particular club by walking on the moon as Commanders of Apollos 16 and 17 respectively.

Yesterday’s second portrait was Michael Collins, CMP of Apollo 11. He!s the only member of that crew to feature: he stayed in orbit while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin visited the moon.

So today we’re on to Apollo 12. Commander Pete Conrad and LMP Alan Bean went down to the moon, so we’re only interested in the CMP Richard Gordon Junior. Richard’s second colour is pink. I’ve caught him looking at something on his hand, which makes. Change from all the official looking passport style poses that I’ve used so far. This one fits in perfectly with the rest of what’s looking like a pretty good collection.

When I paint a portrait, I often feel myself getting to know the sitter, even when only using a photo. When I have twelve subjects to paint, all of whom have visited the moon, that connection just leaves me awestruck. There’s a lot of emotion going into these portraits.

Richard is part of The Forgotten Twelve collection.