Gordon Onslow Ford was born in Wendover, England in 1912. Influenced by family members, his painting career began at an early age. His grandfather was a well-known Elizabethan sculptor, and his aunt exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy of London. Shortly after the death of his father in 1926, Ford began studies at the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth at age fourteen. He also attended the Dragon School in Oxford and the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.

Following several trips to Paris while in the Navy, Ford decided to pursue art, studying with Andre Lhote and Fernand Leger. Ford joined Surrealist groups in Paris, London, and New York during the years 1938 to 1943, and preoccupied himself with painting nat...