[2] Phạm Thanh Tâm was born in Vĩnh Hảo, Vinh Lại, Vụ Bản district, Nam Định Province – northern Hải Phòng – into a family with a tradition of revolutionary activities.
After evacuating the city in late-1946, he attended a six-month painting training course organized by the Art Division of Military Zone III held at Phù Lưu Chanh communal house, near Đầu market, in Bắc Ninh.
[4] After his studies at the painting training course in Military Zone III, Phạm Thanh Tâm was assigned to the Culture and Information Office in Hưng Yên Province.
He arrived on 11 March 1954, two days before the decisive Battle of Điện Biên Phủ, which he participated in as a soldier and documented as an artist and journalist.
Again as a journalist, he was granted permission to write and paint from the battlefields along the Ho Chi Minh trail; in Khe Sanh, Quảng Trị and Hạ Long Bay; during the 1972 Christmas Bombings; in Đà Nắng and during the Fall of Saigon.
[2][12][1][4] Although artists worked under difficult conditions and with limited resources,[13] he managed to preserve most of his sketches and paintings by sending them back to Hanoi for safe keeping, using a variety of materials and the occasional use of photographs.