Thurmond was born in 1949 at Hollandale in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, the son of a third generation sharecroppers, Paul Thurmond jr., who later became a master carpenter and from whom he learned his wood working skills used in making frames for his paintings. He began studying plein-air/colour painting in 1968 at Delta State College, Cleveland, Mississippi, with Sammy Britt, a former student of master colourist Henry Hensche. In 1969 Thurmond made the pilgrimage to Hensche’s Cape School of painting in Provincetown Massachusetts to observe the master first hand. This was repeated for the next several years until 1973. After working on his own for over 10 years, Thurmond renewed their personal association at Hensche’s winter studio in Gray Louisiana in 1983. He returned to Provincetown in 1985, 1986, and 1988 to study and paint with Hensche not only as a student, but as a comrade and friend. To Thurmond Hensche was not just a teacher but also mentor and master. Hensche called him his bastard step child as well as a painting experiment having guided him over the years through a course of study uniquely his own, having studied landscape light keys in depth before applying that same level of effort to studying form through still life.

As a committed disciple of Hensche and his method of colour study he has devoted his life to the discovery of visual truth instead of following after artistic fads. Hensche student Charles Miller, as well as former Hawthorne and Hensche student George Copeland, were also instrumental in his visual education. He has been a student of nature, colour perception, and plein-air painting for over 50 years. Since Hensche’s death in 1992 he has rededicated himself to a more complete understanding of the ideas, principles and ideals Hensche taught and stood for.

A full-time professional since 1977, he has had numerous one-man shows in New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta, Birmingham, Jackson, Nashville, New York City, Cape Cod, and Washington, D.C. Thurmond’s work may be found in private and corporate collections in England, Europe, Africa, South America, Japan, and throughout the United States and Canada including in Mississippi; the Lauren Rodgers museum of Art Laurel, the Meridian Museum of Art Meridian, and Delta State University Cleveland, and in Florida; Northwood Institute West Palm Beach, and Lynn University Boca Raton. His works are also to be found in the prestigious Lerner Foundation and H. B. Heidelberg Collections.