Joined the Carmel Art Association in 1940. Sam Colburn and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1918. Before leaving Colorado, he says "I saw Buffalo Bill in his casket, he looked great!" He attended the University of Colorado and the University of Southern California (B.A. in Geology). He also studied at Chouinard in Los Angeles and with Paul Whitman in Carmel. After spending a year in Europe, he invested in the airplane business in Long Beach in 1934. He sold out in 1937 and moved to Carmel, where he began to paint in watercolor. He has received numerous 1st awards from the Monterey County Fair, Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Watercolor Annual, and designed the tile mural in the county Courthouse.