Blumenschein and Bert Phillips, on an 1898 sketching trip from New York to Mexico, were delayed by a broken wagon wheel outside of the isolated northern New Mexican village of Taos. Finding the surrounding mountain scenery majestic and the thriving Hispanic and Native American cultures paint worthy, they ventured no further. Heeding the invitation of these two artists, others came from the East and by 1915 the Taos art colony was fully established.