Dorothy Bordass (nee Foster) was born in London. She studied as an illuminator under Alberto Sangorski, and at Harrow School of Art. During the 1920s she was a student at the Academie Julian in Paris, and at the Heatherley School of Fine Art. During the 1930s and 1940s her artistic career was interrupted by marriage, a young family, and World War II. 

In the early 1950s, while in Malaya, her work developed from the figurative to pure abstraction. At an exhibition at the Singapore Art Society, Bordass heard about Peter LANYON and William REDGRAVE's new abstract art school, St Peter's Loft, in St Ives. Returning to England for Christmas in 1954, she studied there for several months in early 1955, on a residential course which included accommodation at the Redgrave's house. Later that year she returned to St Ives, renting a small house and sharing a studio with the engraver John BARCLAY, who taught her drypoint and helped her to acquire her own press. In 1957 she exhibited at the important Metavisual Tachiste Abstract at London's Redfern Gallery, and the following year her work was included in the Arts Council of Great Britain Tour.

She bought a house in St Ives for the family to move to after Malaysia became independent in 1957.

Dorothy Bordass lived in France, Italy, Germany, Egypt and Malaya, and travelled widely in Europe, the Middle East and Far East. Her work has been shown in many commercial galleries and public exhibitions, and appears in numerous private collections in Canada, England, Eire, Holland, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and in the USA.

Her work is eclectic, on both abstract and representational themes, and in many media including oils, acrylics and gouache; pencil, charcoal and pastel drawings; etchings, engravings and aquatints; linocuts and collages. 

In the 1970s she moved to Cambridge, and her work became largely figurative due to her great interest in objective drawing.