 In Colburn's early landscapes, he is interested in structure and composition, trying to capture the essence of a scene with a Cezannesque interest in reducing volumes to shape and color.His early figural works of Monterey fisherman at work in the sardine canneries made famous by John Steinbeck, reduce the figures to blocky forms in the manner of Diego Rivera.Colburn's later nudes, still lifes, and landscapes, made when the artist was in his eighties, are elegant, and entirely loose and expressive.