As the child of two art collectors, Graydon Parrish began cultivating his passion years before he enrolled at Dallas, Texas’ Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts. He graduated in 1988 in search of a classical education in painting and gained admission to the New York Academy of Art, an institution co-founded by Andy Warhol. As a student of the MFA painting program, Graydon Parrish connected with Michael Aviano, a recognized expert in the field. In the years following graduation, Graydon Parrish continued to study rigorously under the noted artist and obtained a rich foundation in the integration of realism and classicism. With an unyielding dedication to his craft, Graydon Parrish eventually matriculated to Amherst College, where he gained a further education in theory and technical proficiency alike. His thesis, a massive allegorical painting entitled “Remorse, Despondence and the Acceptance of an Early Death” secured his role in the modern art world with a flawless amalgam of classical precision and symbolic thematic presentation; today, the piece speaks to visitors of the Mead Art Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. To date, the works of Graydon Parrish appear in a host of museums, including the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut; the Tyler Museum in Tyler, Texas; the Blanton Museum of Art; and the Austin Museum of Art in Austin, Texas. Additionally, his work appears in the private collections of a number of celebrities, among them Diane Sawyer and Michael Huffington. Outside of his accomplishments as an artist, Graydon Parrish pursues many engagements as an academic; most recently, he served as a co-author for the scholarly book Charles Bargue and Jean Leon-Gerome: Drawing Course.
