Philip Campbell Curtis (May 26, 1907 – November 12, 2000) was an American painter best remembered for his surrealist-inspired style scenes often featuring figures in Victorian dress.
A bone chilling fall through the ice on Vandercook Lake near Jackson during a hunting excursion when he was sixteen led to a serious illness and a year of bed rest.
Curtis looked on his arthritic condition philosophically, musing that the restrictions to his activities led to his contemplative life as a painter: "I'm most comfortable sitting at the easel, so I credit my arthritis with making me happy with my situation."
At Yale he followed a classical course of study with emphasis on painting and drawing from life with professors Francis Taylor, Eugene Savage and Lewis York.
The Ellises moved a converted barn from a nearby ranch onto their property (now called Cattle Track) in Scottsdale, Arizona as a house and studio for Phil and Marge.
For the rest of his life, Curtis lived in the little house next door to the Ellis family, which eventually grew to include their three children, David, Janie and Michael.
Janie Ellis prepared many of the bonded plywood and masonite boards that Curtis painted on, making the base layer of gesso from a fine powder mixed with rabbit skin glue and cooked to the right consistency over a period of hours.