Catherine Phillpotts was born at St Gluvias, Cornwall, daughter of Rev. William John Phillpotts, archdeacon of Cornwall, and his wife Louisa (nee Buller). Records indicate that the family were living at St Gluvias Vicarage in 1871, the year of Louisa's death.

From 1884 to 1918 she is recorded as a member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club, exhibiting watercolours.

After her father's death in Falmouth in 1888, Catherine moved to Bovey Tracey in Devon, where she was living in 1891 with two siblings. She died in Bedford in 1919, aged 72.