In the early 1900s, the paddlewheel steamer Borealis Rex traversed the Calcasieu River from Lake Charles to Cameron, the only communications and transportation between the two communities. The Borealis Rex stopped at landings along the river delivering mail, freight and passengers. Kendrick's oil painting captures the Rex loading passengers and freight at one of its many stops along the Calcasieu River.

James L. Kendrick, III was a helicopter pilot druing the Vietnam War. In 1976 returned to New Orleans where he began a full-time art career. Kendrick has won numerous awards in art shows throughout the Southeast. Kendrick is well known for his marine paintings and scenes of life along Southern bayous. Art collectors value his compostiions of plantation homes, old New Orleans and Southern still life.