Philip Van Cott was born on October 9th, 1945. His father was a longshoreman on the Brooklyn waterfront. His mother was a piece worker who ran a sewing machine in a local sweat shop. The artist attended catholic grammar school and graduated from John Jay High School. Two years later, he was drafted and immediately joined the Marine Corps. Within six months he was deployed to Vietnam and became a member of Mike 3/7, (a frontline marine rifle company). On August 26, 1966, he was wounded in action and returned to the United States.
Philip began painting in his early thirties. At the age of forty, he enrolled in the University of Hartford Art School. By the age of forty-five, he had his own studio. His first series of work was inspired by the games he played as a child in the streets of Brooklyn during the 50s and early 60s. Presently the artist is working on the day-to-day experiences of a 20-year-old Marine, in the rice paddies, jungles, and mountains of Vietnam.
Philip began exhibiting in the early nineties with shows in Brooklyn, New York for the Waterfront Artists Coalition, Ridgefield, CT Main Street Art Show, University of MA Veterans art exhibit, Canal Galleries annual group show, Springfield College Veterans art exhibit, Milford CT Art Council. He currently resides in Enfield, CT with his wife Karen.
