INVERNESS, CALIFORNIA.- Artist Gordon Onslow Ford, last survivor of the Paris 1930’s Surrealists, died in California. He was born in England in 1912. The Surrealist group included André Breton, Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy. Onslow Ford later formed a group called Dynaton in the US.  

Gordon Onslow Ford began painting at an early age. His grandfather, Edward Onslow Ford , was a renowned Victorian sculptor and his aunt, Enid Widdrington, exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy of London. Following the death of his father  at age 14, he was sent to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. The ocean affected him deeply and his early works depicted ocean scenes. The metaphor of taking a "voyage" later became an important aspect of his paintings. 

While in the Navy, Onslow Ford visited Paris several times. In 1937, he resigned as a naval officer and moved to Paris to pursue painting full-time. 

He studied with André L’hote for five weeks and studied with Fernand Léger for a short time. He continued visiting Léger, bringing his work to him often for critique. 

Soon he met the Chilean artist Roberto Matta. Matta was studying architecture with le Corbusier and was an accomplished draftsman, making small drawings on the side. Onslow Ford, with his keen sense of seeing, admired Matta’s drawings as "the most exciting images" he had seen in Paris. He encouraged Matta to continue with his drawings, which eventually inspired Matta to shift his direction from architecture to painting.