 In 1937 he moved to Carmel, where he became a member of the Carmel Art Association three years later

The Monterey Peninsula provided the perfect cultural climate for the development of Colburn's art.At the time, the prominent artists Armin Hansen, William Ritschel, Paul Whitman, August Gay, and Louis Siegriest were present in the area and provided valuable friendship and advice; the writer John Steinbeck, poet Robinson Jeffers and photographers Edward Weston and Ansel Adams were also close friends.Salvador Dalí, who lived in Pebble Beach during the 1940s, attracted other important European modernists to the area including Fernand Leger, with whom Colburn studied in 1941.