Violet Parkhurst was born in Derby line, Vermont. She showed an early penchant for drawing. She later attended the School of Practical Arts in Boston, won a scholarship to the Museum of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro, followed by a year of study at Baylor College in Waco, Texas. She then finished her formal training at Los Angeles State College.

Believing that an artist should see the world before they can become a great artist, she indulged her longings and visited every state of the Union, then Canada. In Mexico City she studied art for three months with Diego Rivera's wife. She received a scholarship to the Rio de Janeiro Museum and was off to South America. On her way to Rio, the ship she was on had to drop the passengers in Natal, Brazil due to a revolution. They had to use the ship for Army personnel. She then rented a house in Natal, Brazil, studied Portuguese and wrote and illustrated a book. It was entitled "Jaguar By The Tale!" and was published in Rio. Here she painted pictures of the natives, the fruit markets and huts, all of which she sold. To pay for the travel, she became a Foreign Correspondent for movie magazines published and distributed in South America. She has interviews and photos of herself with most of the major stars including Clark Gable whom she dated.

Parkhurst gave up writing and turned seriously to painting because of her love for this medium. The temperament she inherited from her French mother and Scotch-Irish father could best be expressed by oils and brush. This internationally acclaimed woman artist is no mild illustrator, nor is she a dabbler in prosaic landscapes. Instead she specializes in two genres into which women painters have rarely ventured, seascapes and nudes, and certainly not with the force, action and vibrancy she brings to her work.

Her love of the ocean also includes her own sailboats and cruisers in which she has enjoyed exploring the Pacific and Mexican waters. Her other love is her thoroughbred horses, which she has bred and raced since 1976 with many winners.

Parkhurst paints seascapes, life-like studies of the bubbling foam-flinging seas of the world, which thunder of the shores in their wild rush for the beach. She captures the moonlit seas as well as the summer surf.

She paints both the male and female nude, not thin, demure, cloak-shrouded figures, but full, fleshy, wholly-exposed Rubensian nudes set in dreamy settings and displaying unashamedly their magnificent, God-given charms and attributes. For her successful invasion of these customarily male domains, and for her masterful rendering of the paintings, Violet Parkhurst has won scholarships, trophies, ribbons, accolades, critical acclaim and an international reputation.

Two of her seascapes were chosen with twenty-four other artist's paintings to tour Europe for the Cultural Exchange. The show was at all major museums including the Louvre and Prado. The two paintings are now in the permanent collection of the Stockholm Museum.

In the Spring of 2002, Violet Parkhurst was invited to China, where she was honored as the first western artist to have paintings in the collections of The Great Hall of the Peoples Republic of China and the China National Museum of Fine Arts, and was installed as Professor Emeritus at the Jilin Art College.

Violet has served on the Board of Directors for the Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service, and her artwork has been used on the cover of the program, website and marketing materials for the past 20+ years.  On their site Violet is listed as "Angel" which is the highest level of supporter.

Violet's paintings are in eight museums worldwide and she is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in International Art, Community Leaders, Noteworthy Americans and American Artists of Renown.

A few noted collectors:
President Gerald Ford
President Richard Nixon
President George Bush
President Ronald Reagan
King Faud (Saudi Arabia)
Angela Lansbury
Governor Pete Wilson
Hilton Hotels
Dinah Shore
Rory Calhoun
James Arness
Stephanie Powers
Shirley Jones
Connie Stevens
Robert Brooks
L.A. Mayor Sam Yorty
L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley
Peabody of Howard Johnson
Honorable Mayor of Kobe, Japan

Parkhurst painting feature on the set of the hit TV show "The Jeffersons"

View Her Collection