In a blog post this spring, we announced our collaboration with Sacramento artist Tim Collom on three new paintings depicting his vision of the region. The paintings reflect a day spent touring parts of the Sacramento Valley to draw inspiration, including visits to Conaway Ranch, the Sacramento River waterfront in West Sacramento, and Montna Farms, which became the subjects of the three paintings.
The Conaway Ranch painting represents an area of the ranch in the Yolo Bypass. The painting displays and highlights the multi-benefit working lands in the foreground. In the winter months, the bypass provides flood protection to the Sacramento region by routing flows off the Sacramento River, around the city, and out to the Delta to decrease the amount of water flowing through the cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento. During the irrigation season, these same lands are farmed using water diverted and conveyed from the Sacramento River, as captured in the painting.
In winter, the flooding of these same lands also provides essential food and habitat for fish and birds on the reactivated floodplains. Through active land and water management, this region is a critical stop along the Pacific Flyway for waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors and other bird species.
More recently, the bypasses are also being intentionally managed to provide habitat for Chinook salmon and other fish, giving them access to lands that function much like the historic floodplains that existed before the construction of the modern levee system for the Sacramento Valley.
The Sacramento skyline in the upper left of the painting is a good reminder of the size of these multi-benefit working lands and the open space they provide so close to the city. These lands are part of the rich mosaic of the Sacramento Valley celebrated through Collom’s art.
Watch the video below to hear from Tim Collom and see his inspiration.
To learn more about the amazing work at Conaway Ranch, see recent blog post here.
