Albany couple Michael and Billie Moore capture, enhance images

ALBANY - Whenever Michael and Billie Moore travel, their camera is in hand.

From Mexico to New Orleans and recently to the American Southwest, they've captured breathtaking images of landscapes and people.

Whereas most travel photos simply end up in an album, the Moores instead use their photographs to create pastel and oil paintings.

"Every time we go, we take the camera because you never know what you're going to see," Billie Moore said. "Sometimes we cut pictures and put them together because nature doesn't do good composition always; so we have to do it ourselves."

What results from those photos are beautiful landscapes that are strong in color, yet relaxing to view, and portraits of people that capture the soul.

"I'm drawn to things that have a lot of color in them and take you back into a painting," Michael Moore said.

His love of color can be found in much of his work, where he brightens a tree, a mountain or a field of flowers to capture the eye's attention.

Although he primarily works with pastels, many people think his work is watercolor because of how he blends, he said.

Michael has been working with pastels since 1991, when his wife suggested he take a "Learn to See and Draw" art class from Linn-Benton Community College.

One of the first ones he completed was of a village in Mexico with buses, goats, buildings and people. The piece was accepted into the Oregon State Fair.

"When this man started to paint, he sold more paintings in his first two years than I did in my life," Billie said with amusement. "It made me want to hit him."

Billie has worked with many medium since childhood, including stained glass and photography.

Within Peach Tree Studio, the Moores' private work space in their North Albany home, Billie's stained glass can be found hanging in front of windows and even in the chandelier above the dinning room table.

The glass adds yet another hint of color to their already airy work space that boasts large windows. Their easels are set up in such a way that they can look out the window while they paint.

Billie's greatest love can be found in portraiture, which she creates with oil paints.

While in college, she used to sketch her classmates and professors and even journeyed down to the local pubs to sketch people for money, she said.

Her paintings use brilliant colors, much like Michael's work, but her pieces also tend to include the faces of people they see in their travels.

Unlike Michael, she prefers to work with oil paints over pastels.

"Pastels annoy me because in a box of 600, you can't find the green you want," she said. "But you can mix it with oils."

While 98 percent of their work comes to life from photographs, they do hope to find time to paint en plein air - in the open air - in the near future.