Born in London, he arrived in Auckland in 1863. Blomfield had trained as a house decorator, and was a self taught artist, yet he became considered one of the leading professional artists in New Zealand.

He painted the Pink and White Terraces in the Rotorua district before the Tarawera eruption destroyed them in 1886. He exhibited the original twelve paintings in his house in Wood Street, Ponsonby. He would not sell them but made many scale copies of them over the years. He often went on expeditions covering most of the country.

Blomfield worked mainly in oils, developing in the 1880's a strong detailed style: as his work tended to become more romantic in the later years. At one time his studio in the Victoria Arcade in Queen Street was open daily and visited by the tourists.

Blomfield exhibited with the Society of Artists, Auckland 1873 - 77; with ASA from 1881; the NZ Industrial Exhibition, Wellington 1885 and 1889; in NZ and South Seas Exhibition 1889 - 90; Centennial Exhibition, Melbourne 1888 - 89 and Melbourne International Exhibition 1880 - 81; the Industrial and Mining Exhibition, Auckland 1898; the NZ International Exhibition, Christchurch 1906 - 07; and the Centennial Exhibition 1940. Blomfield is also represented in the major New Zealand galleries, the Turnbull and Hocken.