Much of his painting was Cubist inspired and geometric, and he did not receive much national recognition until the 1950s.  In addition to painting landscapes and coastal scenes, many of them on cigar box tops, he was also a muralist, etcher, and furniture builder.

Gay was born in Rabou, near Gap, France between Marseilles and Turin and from this background, brought a strong appreciation of French Impressionism to the Society of Six although he was not a part of the Paris art scene.  He is credited with having an innate sense of color and a basic happiness that transferred to his bright, cheerful paintings.

He emigrated with his father and siblings to Oakland, California in 1900.  However, the mother stayed in France, and Gay never saw her again.  At age sixteen, he developed tuberculosis and spent three years recuperating on his uncle's ranch in the Imperial Valley.  During that time, he did much sketching and developed a commitment to art, but he never regained much energy and had a frail constitution. He was short, about five feet four inches, wiry, and seemed totally oblivious to most everything but his painting.

He met Selden Gile when he bought bricks from Gladding McBean, where Gile was employed, and in 1910, moved in with Gile to escape his very crowded, uncomfortable family home.  He worked menial jobs around the city including at a fruit cannery, a warehouse, and at the Palace Hotel Restaurant as a food checker.

He never seemed to have enough money and often wore Gile's clothing.  The two lived together for nearly a decade, although Gile, who gave financial support to his friend, was often impatient with what he regarded as Gay's slow pace.  After 1919, Gay lived in Monterey but continued to exhibit with the Six at the Oakland Art Gallery.

In Monterey, he shared a studio with Clayton Price, and living in Carmel during the last ten years of his life, worked as a furniture designer and custom framer until his death on March 9, 1948.

Gay's art education was minimal. He attended occasional classes at the California School of Arts and Crafts and later took night school at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. In 1916, he entered his first exhibition. 

His work is in the collection of the Oakland Museum and Monterey High School where he did a mural.

Source: Nancy Boas, Society of Six

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