GORDON ONSLOW FORD
Read Biographical Notes 
by Gordon Onslow Ford 
with excerpts from an interview 
by Theodore E. Lindberg, 
Inverness 26. March 1984
Biography Continued
Gordon Onslow Ford and Jacqueline Johnson
Zihuatanejo, Mexico c. 1946
Photo by Elisabeth Onslow Ford Rouslin
Gordon Onslow Ford and Jacqueline Johnson
Lake Patzcuaro, Erongaricuaro, Mexico c. 1946
Photo by Elisabeth Onslow Ford Rouslin
Murry Morgan - Life/Time Reporter, Bill Fett, Jacgueline Johnson, Carmela Fett,
El Molino, Mexico,  c. 1943-45
Harry Partch's studio - Gate 5, Sausalito, CA
Jacqueline Johnson, Harry Partch,
Malite Matta, Matta 
Photo by Emmett Smith, 1956
Dynaton group 
Lee Mullican, Luchita Hurtado, Jacqueline Johnson, 
Gordon Onslow Ford, Wolfgang Paalen, 1951
Gordon Onslow Ford and Matta
on the ferryboat Vallejo moored in Sausalito, CA
It was purchased by Gordon Onslow
Ford in 1956 to use as a studio 
Gordon Onslow Ford and Jacqueline Johnson
Bishop Pine Preserve, Inverness, CA July 26, 1975
Gordon Onslow Ford in his studio on the ferryboat Vallejo, c. 1956
(Given to Alan Watts 2 years before Alan's death)
 Back in London, Onslow Ford organized a Surrealist exhibition, and together with Roland Penrose and Edouard Léon Théodore  Mesens, he co-edited an issue of the London Bulletin devoted to Surrealism in 1940.  Illness prevented his sailing on the destroyer  to which he was assigned which became the first British vessel to be sunk in the war.  Soon after he received an invitation arrived  from the Committee to Preserve European Culture to join other artists and give lectures in the United States.  He obtained a leave  from the Royal Navy and set sail for New York in June 1940. There he was reunited with his Surrealist friends Matta, Yves Tanguy  and Kay Sage. His stay in New York is most notable for a series of lectures on Surrealism he gave at the New School for Social  Research in 1941 and for the exhibition of Surrealist painting he arranged at the New School concurrent with the lectures.   Although he was received with much excitement by the New York artists, he became unsettled by the prospect of becoming a spokesman  for Surrealism in New York.  Instead, he decided to join other Surrealists in Mexico seeking greater isolation to travel his own  artistic path. He married Jacqueline Johnson, a writer whom he had met at one of his New York lectures and they left for Mexico in  August 1941.   
In the Tarascan village of Erongaricuaro, the couple found an abandoned hacienda, called The Mill, which they renovated and made  their home for the next six years. They arranged several rooms for their artist friends to visit, in particular other Surrealist  refugees including Esteban Frances, Remedios Varo and Matta, as well as inquisitive young artists from the Chicago School. They  were frequently joined by former surrealist Wolfgang Paalen who had founded a new “post surrealist” publication, DYN, as a  challenge to André Breton’s VVV in New York. Paalen and Onslow Ford shared a passion for art, science and Pre-Columbian art. In  Mexico, there was a new serenity in Onslow Ford’s paintings as he responded to the landscape setting of lake and mountains. The  work also reflected the harmonious relationship with his wife Jacqueline. Eventually the bright colors of Indian weaving and the  geometric patterns on ceramics influenced his paintings, as did the unique manner in which the Tarascan people viewed the world.  Meanwhile Jacqueline Johnson assisted Paalen in editing DYN and contributed her writings to the journal.   
In 1947, Onslow Ford and Johnson moved to California, choosing the San Francisco Bay Area as the fertile soil where their creative  ideas could flourish. In 1948, Onslow Ford was given a retrospective show at the San Francisco Museum of Art. The title of the  exhibition was "Towards a New Subject in Painting", which expressed his aim of breaking new ground in art.  While living there,  Onslow Ford met the Greek painter Jean Varda and together they acquired the ferryboat "Vallejo" which they converted into their  studios and docked in Sausalito.  For many years the ferryboat was an inspiring haven for artists and exponents of the Beat  movement, as it became a small cultural center on the waterfront.  
In 1951, Onslow Ford, Wolfgang Paalen, Lee Mullican and Jacqueline Johnson created an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art  called "Dynaton." Dynaton in Greek means "possible." This exhibition was the launching ground for the concept of the "quest of the  inner worlds" and firmly established the future direction of Onslow Ford's artistic endeavors. In the early 1950s, Onslow Ford was  introduced to Asian philosophy and studied Hinduism with Haridas Chaudhuri and Buddhism with scholar Alan Watts at the newly-formed American Academy of Asian Studies (now called the California Institute of Integral Studies) in San Francisco.    
While walking one day among the ancient redwood groves of Muir Woods near Mill Valley, California, Gordon observed that lines,  circles and dots occur consistently in nature, and are the primal root of art, conveying the "underlying ground of existence." He had an insight that lines, circles and dots were the visual elements by which he could travel into deeper layers of consciousness.           
 
In 1952 he met the venerable Zen master Hodo Tobase of the Soto Zen sect and began a five-year period of study of Chinese  Calligraphy. This introduction to Asian thought and practice had a profound influence on his paintings. Buddhist teachings of the  Void and Emptiness, as well as the practice of calligraphy, opened an exploration of the depths of the Mind and its images.
 
In 1957, Onslow Ford and his wife Jacqueline Johnson acquired over 250 acres of land in the hills of Inverness, California. They  collaborated with architect Warren Callister and built their house in 1958.  J.B. Blunk worked on constructing the roof of this  house and when the project was completed, Blunk was invited to build his home and studio on the land.  A few years later, Onslow  Ford gave permission to his painting assistant John Anderson to build his own house and studio. Soon, an artists’ colony emerged on  what is known as the Bishop Pine Preserve. In the 1970s, the Onslow Fords deeded the majority of their land to the Nature  Conservancy so that it would remain forever wild. Currently, there are eight artists in residence on the land remaining in the  Bishop Pine Preserve. 
The life-style of an artist colony/residency was deeply appreciated by the Onslow Fords. As a graduate student in the 1930s,  Jacqueline Johnson commissioned architect Richard Neutra to design a house for her in Los Altos, California. She shared the land with poet Clayton Stafford, and another writer. In Chemillieu, France in 1939, Onslow Ford created a temporary community of artists living together and inspiring  each other .
He kept his vision of community, which he practiced in Sausalito with Jean Varda in the 1950's and later  fulfilled with the Bishop Pine Preserve in the hills of Inverness.  
 
Onslow Ford published his first book Painting in the Instant in 1964.  The book was written in the spirit of Zen. His wife died in 1976 as he was working on his second book. Creation was published in 1978, following his major retrospective at the Oakland Museum  of California in 1977. After these events, he embraced a more solitary life as he continued a rigorous regiment as an artist.
 
In 1989, he met Fariba Bogzaran, an artist and doctoral candidate in lucid dream research. They began a series of  dialogues on inner world painting and experiences. Bogzaran found a visual connection between Onslow Ford's paintings and his theory of  line, circle, dot with her research observations in contemplative lucid dream practices and meditation.  Onslow Ford collaborated  with her on several books and artists’ manifestos including Insights (1991), Ecomorphology (1994) and Once Upon a Time (1999) as well as the concept of Lucid Art. With Onslow Ford's close friend and associate, Robert Anthoine, they co-founded a non-profit  organization called the Lucid Art Foundation (www.lucidart.org) to support artists whose work reflects inquiry into deeper levels of  consciousness.  
 
The last decade of Onslow Ford’s work and career was perhaps one of the most prolific times in his life.  He was re-introduced to  Europe in the early 1990s and had two major museum retrospective exhibitions in Germany (1994) and Spain (1998). In Chile, his  retrospective show (1995) in Santiago was recognized as one of the best exhibitions of the year.  The following year, in  conjunction with a 1996 retrospective exhibition at the Arts and Consciousness Gallery at JFK University in Berkeley, Onslow Ford  received an honorary doctorate degree in Fine Arts in 1997.          
 
Gordon Onslow Ford died peacefully in his home on November 9th, 2003 at the age of ninety. 

From 2000 to 2010, Gordon Onslow Ford  has had eight successful gallery exhibits in San Francisco including shows at Campbell-Theibaud Gallery, Braunstein/Quay Gallery  and six large shows at Weinstein Gallery.  He left his legacy to the Lucid Art Foundation.