Douglass Ewell Parshall was born in New York City on November 19, 1899.  His father, Dewitt Parshall was an accomplished artist and began teaching Douglass the skill of draftsmanship at an early age. As a child, Douglass began painting landscapes, and at age fifteen exhibited one of his paintings at the National Academy of Design. Douglass Parshall continued his artistic training at the Art Students League in New York City, Académie Julian in Paris, and the Boston Museum School.

In 1917 he moved to Santa Barbara, California where he established a studio in the artist Alexander Harmer's old adobe. He was best known for painting landscapes, figures, portraits, and horses.  Parshall also traveled throughout the world and exhibited extensively, with shows at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1918 and 1921; National Academy of Design, New York City, 1924, 1927; Century of Progress, Chicago, 1933; De Young Museum, San Francisco, 1935; Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939; Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, 1942; California Watercolor Society, 1958, 1962, 1965.

During the 1960s and 1970s Douglass Parshall taught portraiture at the Santa Barbara Art Institute. Parshall was a member of the National Academy of Design; Society of Western Artists; California Art Club; Painters of the West; Santa Barbara Art Association; Los Angeles Art Association; California Watercolor Society.

Parshall's works are in the collections of Warner Brothers Theater, Hollywood (murals); Santa Barbara Jr. High School (murals); Syracuse Museum, New York; Reading Museum, Pennsylvania; Kansas City Museum; San Diego Museum; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Detroit Museum; M. H. de Young Museum, San Francisco; Oakland Museum; Santa Barbara Museum.