After completing my (1995-1998) series on California's longest river, the Sacramento, I began a major series on the San Joaquin River. The San Joaquin is the state's second longest river (366 miles), but has been heavily dammed and diverted, undergoing decades of neglect and misuse. The river was due for extensive restoration when I began my project of painting the San Joaquin in 2005.  I was filled with hopes and dreams as I began exploring the wonderfully diverse terrain of the river, eagerly seeking out sites to paint from its mountainous origins, through the stately valley, and ultimately flowing into the Delta and out through San Francisco Bay to the Pacific. A three-day trip by horseback to visit the headwaters was a remarkable experience, along with many painting trips throughout California's Central Valley.  The Metropolitan Museum in Fresno was to be the lead museum for a series of exhibitions, traveling next to the Haggin Museum in Stockton, then the Bay Institute in San Francisco. A book of the paintings was in the early stages of planning when . . . the financial collapse of 2008 hit. The 'great recession' had a profound effect on the San Joaquin Valley for several years: The city of Stockton declared bankruptcy, and the Metropolitan Museum in Fresno actually closed permanently. Over the following decade the economy of the Valley gradually recovered but was then disrupted by the COVID pandemic. Sadly, after I completed around 50 paintings, my project simply stopped in 2009. The work has never been shown and I've been storing the paintings in my studio ever since.

However,  the plan to publish the book was recently revived. Below are some of the paintings, and click here for a separate page with some of the drawings. The book, Riparian Journey, was published in late 2024.