Path to abstract

When he was serving in the U.S. Army, Jay Sagen couldn’t envision his future in the military and went to explore his options. That was when he stumbled into the world of art.

It didn’t matter to Sagen that often he was the only student in the classes on and around his base.

As long as the military continued to sponsor them, he was there.

“I just knew that I didn’t want to do what I was doing at the time, which was being a soldier,” Sagen said.

It didn’t take Sagen long to figure out what he really wanted to do.

Today, he is a longtime Coastline Community College art instructor who was recently honored for his work at the college’s art gallery in Huntington Beach.

Although Sagen didn’t take art seriously until the 1960s, growing up, he was always interested in the painting process and how it worked. He followed his passion for art after recognizing his talent and pursued an education in the field.

He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute as a sculpture major and went on to earn his master’s in studio art at UC Irvine. After having tried sculpture and printmaking, Sagen chose to be a painter.

Sagen’s works do not necessarily tell a story, but they convey emotions shown through the strong gestures, large brush strokes and minimal colors that contrast each other.

Sagen said it took him 40 years to prepare for the work he does today, but he believes his abstract style was established early in his career.

“I think you can see the continuation when you put all my work together in a timeline,” he said. “You can definitely see a pattern, even though the paintings reflect different time periods.”

A retrospective collection of Sagen’s paintings was on display earlier this month at the Coastline Art Gallery.

Sagen, the gallery’s curator, stepped down and took on the artist role while Shea Mayberry and Jane Bauman co-curated his exhibit, “Jay Sagen Painting.”

The two curators carefully selected the paintings for display and it wasn’t an easy task choosing several pieces from such a large collection, Mayberry said.

“Jay’s works really speak to me,” she said. “The colors are so dynamic, and the images are all visually very strong.”

Sagen believes that art is to be appreciated and enjoyed rather than kept in storage. He often gives his works away for free.

“I would rather have them out than to be sitting in the studio,” he said.