Thomas Sherlock Hodgson was a painter and commercial artist who was born in Toronto, Canada, where he lived most of his life. He died in Peterborough, Ontario, about 100 km from Toronto. His mediums were oil, acrylic, watercolour, gouache, silkscreen, charcoal and mixed mediums. His subjects were non-objective abstracts, landscapes, nudes, figures and portraits. His styles were abstract expressionism, lyrical abstraction, realism and pop art.

Hodgson studied at the Art Gallery of Toronto under Arthur Lismer (1934 - 1936), at the Central Technical School, Toronto (1939 - 1943) under Charles Goldhamer and Bob Ross and at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto (1945 - 1946) under Rowley Walter Murphy. He taught at the Ontario College of Art from 1968 to 1972 and began painting full time in 1976. He has also traveled in Europe and Australia.

He is probably best known for being a member of the "Painters Eleven", group of artists that promoted non-objective painting in Canada from 1954 to 1960. It was and is still a major influence on Canadian modern art. The other members were Jack Bush, Oscar Cahén, Alexandra Luke, J.W.G. MacDonald, Ray Mead, Kazuo Nakamura, William Ronald, Harold Town, Walter Yarwood and Hortense Gordon.

He was also a member of the Ontario Society of Artists (1954), the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (1954), the Canadian Group of Painters (1956), and an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy (1962). It should also be noted that during the Second World War he served overseas with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was also an accomplished athlete who was on the Canadian Olympic paddling team in 1952 (Helsinki, Finland) and in 1956 (Melbourne, Australia).

His work has been exhibited in over 50 major solo and group exhibitions from the early 1950's to 1995. These include four Canadian Biennials at the National Gallery of Canada (1955, 57, 59 and 61); the Smithsonian U.S.A. Tour (1956 - 1957); a two-man show with Graham Coughtry at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1960; the Canadian Biennial in London, England (1963) and the Painters Eleven Retrospective traveling exhibition (1978 - 1981). He also exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy from 1952 to 1966, and with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from 1954 to 1963. In addition his work has been exhibited in many other locations such as Mexico City; New Delhi, India; New York City; Louisville Kentucky and at the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Hodgson's work is in many private, corporate and public collections. Some of the public collections are the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa), the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Concordia University (Montreal), the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia and the Museum of Lachine (Quebec).

As a prominent Canadian artist his work has been discussed in many magazine and newspaper articles. He is listed in A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974), by Colin S. MacDonald, published by Canadian Paperbacks Ltd. (8 volumes); and in The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction (2001), by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar, published by Westbridge Publications Ltd. (4 volumes). His work is also illustrated and discussed in Art Gallery of Ontario - The Canadian Collection(1970), by Helen Pepall Bradfield, published by McGraw-Hill Co. of Canada Ltd. (603 pgs, B&W); in Four Decades (1972) by Paul Duval, published by Clark Irwin & Co. Ltd. (191 pgs, colour); in Contemporary Canadian Art (1983), by David Burnett and Marilyn Schiff, Hurtig Publishers (300 pgs, colour and B&W); in Visions - Contemporary Art in Canada (1983), various authors and editors, published by Douglas & McIntyre (239 pgs, colour); in Painting in Canada: A History (1966) by J. Russell Harper, published by University of Toronto Press (463 pgs, B&W); in A Concise History of Canadian Painting(1973), by Dennis Reid, published by Oxford University Press (319 pgs, colour and B&W); and in Canadian Art Today(1970), by William Townsend, published by the New York Graphic Society Ltd. (114 pgs, colour and B&W).

Prepared and contributed to askART by M.D. Silverbrooke