In 1903 he worked as a commercial illustrator for the Los Angeles Times, while becoming captivated by the landscapes and history of the American West. A turning point came in 1909 when Schwartz joined entrepreneur and artist Gibson Catlett, whose firm specialized in spectacular bird's-eye perspective maps promoting new land developments. These paintings were far more than ordinary maps. Combining aerial perspective, architecture, landscape painting, and meticulous drafting, they presented entire communities in vivid three-dimensional views. Schwartz worked with Catlett in Los Angeles before moving with the company to Portland, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, and Chicago.

While working in Calgary, Schwartz met Scottish painter Adam Sherriff Scott, who became both a close friend and an important artistic mentor. Scott's influence helped strengthen Schwartz's abilities as a landscape painter while reinforcing the disciplined draftsmanship demanded by commercial illustration.

The years spent producing panoramic land maps gave Schwartz an extraordinary command of topography and spatial perspective—skills that would define the next chapter of his career.

Returning permanently to California in 1920, Schwartz became one of the principal artists responsible for designing and constructing an astonishing three-dimensional relief map of the entire state of California. Measuring approximately 600 feet long, 18 feet wide, and weighing nearly 70 tons, the enormous model represented mountains, valleys, rivers, highways, and communities in remarkable detail. Popularly known as "Paradise in Panorama," it was described by Scientific American as the largest relief map in the world.

When the project was installed in San Francisco's Ferry Building in 1924, Schwartz relocated to the city and accepted the position of artist and caretaker for the map. For the next thirty years he maintained, restored, and continually updated this remarkable public attraction for the State Board of Harbor Commissioners. His responsibilities also included producing publicity artwork for the California State Chamber of Commerce, whose offices occupied the Ferry Building.

One of the great benefits of the appointment was a private studio inside the Ferry Building itself. There, overlooking San Francisco Bay, Schwartz devoted countless hours to his own paintings while surrounded daily by the scenery that inspired him. During these decades he produced the colorful Northern California landscapes, coastal scenes, and California mission paintings for which collectors know him today.

Schwartz worked comfortably in both oil and watercolor. His paintings combine careful observation with an illustrator's clarity of design and a cartographer's understanding of landforms. Mountains, rolling hills, and coastal headlands are rendered with convincing structure, while broad passages of luminous color create a distinctly California atmosphere.

Although his professional life centered on one of California's most ambitious public works projects, Schwartz never abandoned painting for its own sake. Friends remembered him as an endlessly creative artist whose illustrated letters, humorous sketches, and warm personality made him a beloved member of the artistic community centered around the Ferry Building.

Today, Davis Francis Schwartz occupies a unique place in California art history. Trained as an illustrator, refined through years of cartographic painting, and inspired by Northern California's extraordinary landscapes, he successfully bridged the worlds of commercial art and fine art. His paintings remain lasting records of the California he spent a lifetime studying—both from the painter's easel and from the mapmaker's remarkable eye.