Colburn developed his art during the 1930s and 1940s, a period when American Scene artists nationwide shunned abstraction and modernist experimentation, depicting rural and urban views in a representational manner. Colburn’s American Scene art was tempered by a modernist vision. He found early on what it took others decades to find: a reasoned balance between abstract design and realistic delineation, or between modernism and representationalism. A uniquely gifted and original painter, Colburn was a masterful technician possessing a strong
design sense and keen sensibilities.
The San Francisco art critic Alfred Frankenstein credited Colburn with a sense of drama and "as fine an eye for the subtleties of watercolor as this country has produced since [John] Marin’s heyday."
design sense and keen sensibilities.
The San Francisco art critic Alfred Frankenstein credited Colburn with a sense of drama and "as fine an eye for the subtleties of watercolor as this country has produced since [John] Marin’s heyday."