[4] In 1882, Yard moved to California and joined a partnership with photographer Andrew Putman Hill (1853-1922).

That show included his watercolors, Coast Near Pacific Grove and In the Santa Cruz Mountains.

[1] Critic Lucy B. Jerome reviewed his work and said, "The delicate vernal greens and pale tints of the quiet pastorla scene impress one with the mellowness and ripeness of the painter's conception.

While in San Francisco, Yard taught painters like Laura W. Maxwell, who later followed him to Carmel after he settled there.

The San Francisco Call gave the following review: "Yard has included in the present exhibition pictures done at home and abroad.

A few show the coloring with which those who know anything of his work are familiar, but of the majority one has to make sure by looking at the signature, so far has Yard gotten from the path in which he had been traveling.

His new pictures are simpler and broader and express the poetry of nature in some of her most cheerful and refreshing moods.

Yard's decision to move his studio in Carmel influenced artists like Laura W. Maxwell to follow suit.

In 1908, Yard exhibited at the Hotel Del Monte, the Oakland Free Library and the Berkley Art Association.

"[6] Yard died on January 2, 1909, at age 54, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, from a heart attack on the steps of the Carmel Post Office.

His watercolors continued to display at Vickery's, the Oakland's Orpheum Theatre, and the Gump's Gallery in San Francisco.

[6] Yard's artworks form part of the collections at the San Diego Museum of Art and Stanford University.