When he finished high school, Blumenschein received a scholarship to study violin at the College of Music of Cincinnati.

Their first stop was Denver, Colorado, where they bought art and camping supplies, a wagon, horses and a revolver.

Blumenschein brought the wheel to be repaired in nearby Taos, leaving Phillips alone with the wagon.

When Blumenschein returned three days later with the repaired wheel, they continued to Taos, where they sold their horse and equipage, set up a studio and began to paint.

[2] The style of painting of the Taos painters was to decisively influence the perceptions that the wider world came to have of the American Southwest, specifically of the Pueblo and Navajo Indian peoples.

During World War I, Blumenschein led a national effort to produce range-finder paintings used to help train military gunners.