Looking at the Carlos Joseph Alpha Omega Moon exhibit at 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center takes you back to a different era.

“Shiney,” as he liked to be called, was just as interesting as his paintings.

Charles Cort, who lives in Spanish Fort, is the art dealer for this exhibit. He said he’s “obsessed” with individual artists like Moon.

He became interested in Moon’s work after he met Moon’s daughter, Martha Moon Kracke, who lives in Daphne, at a Bayou Show at the Mobile Museum of Art.

Moon’s fascination for coastal scenes is evidenced by some of his paintings entitled, “Boats and Bait,” “Gas Dock” and “Driftwood.”

Born in Birmingham on May 18, 1906, Moon grew up mostly in boarding houses as his parents were traveling photographers.

His parents, Cort said, sold postcards with scenes of the South in which he was often the subject. Postcards, photos and news clippings are also set on display racks for a glimpse of this time in history.

One photo displayed is of Moon on a boat in Mobile in the spring of 1912. In another photo, he is perched on a large piece of driftwood near the water’s edge. He would later capture driftwood on canvas.

Moon attended Auburn University where he was a member of the ATO (API) fraternity. He eventually moved to Florala where he became president of the Florala Rotary Club.

While living in Florala, he started boat racing, Cort said. Moon was a commercial photographer for years before he focused on canvas.

“Being a photographer helped him set up the paintings,” Cort said.

Oddly enough, his interest is painting began when he was 37.

Moon’s interest was piqued when he pulled out his young daughter’s paint set in an effort to engage her. Instead, he was the one who picked up the brush, Cort said.

Moon won second place in 1946 in a watercolor contest in Alabama for a picture of “Destin Bridge,” the painting covered up and rediscovered.

“It’s the coolest thing,” Cort said of the discovery.

Moon’s favorite medium would eventually become watercolor, but he started out with oils.

Though he often painted the Southern coast, one day he loaded up his art supplies and drove from Florida to Cape Cod and Boston in 1952.

Moon also painted Motif #l, one of the most painted buildings in America, in Rockport, Mass.

Though not uncommon for this era, Moon sometimes rubbed different paint colors — such as green — into the original wooden frames to accentuate the painting, Cort said.

He sometimes painted on both sides of the canvas, sometimes of the same subject but from a different perspective, or, sometimes they were of unrelated scenes.

Moon also was an instructor and one of the leaders for the Bayou Painters Colony in Bayou La Batre and Coden.

Sadley, Moon died in 1953 at the young age of 47 from a heart attack. Along with his finished works, he left behind some unfinished works which are currently on display at the exhibit.

During an afternoon walk through, Cort pointed out one painting called “Sapling Point,” which Moon painted of Wolf Bay before l953, and notes there was no concrete or condos then.

“What I love about these scenes from Alabama is that they no longer exist because of development of the beach,” Cort said.

Given Moon’s love for the water and boats, Cort thinks it is fitting that Moon’s paintings are exhibited at 5 Rivers.