Jay Meuser

Jay Meuser (September 28, 1911 — August 19, 1963) was an American abstract expressionist painter. Meuser's style was versatile and his works prolific. In his lifetime he worked as an illustrator, portrait painter and cartoonist for several newspaper editorial pages.
Biography.
He married Dorothy Ellen Morris in 1938. Their only child, Jacqueline Ellen Meuser, married Suren Saroyan, MD, cousin of the famous American Playwright William Saroyan.
"I've led a most full life," he said to his wife just before his death. Besides teaching at the Art School of San Francisco, he had been a baseball pitcher, a vaudeville performer, a sailor working around the world twice, and "was more than a fair boxer." He had worn 14 different law enforcement badges. At 31, he was the youngest chief of police in Marin County, California. As a member of the Sheet Metal Workers International, he worked at the Terminal Island Naval Shipyard. There he was awarded the Navy's "Certificate of Award" for a suggestion that was adopted concerning the building of naval ships. He also wrote a column in the union's newspaper.
Career.
Meuser painted many of the 20th century prominent personalities, including Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry S. Truman, Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy. His portrait of Roosevelt hung in the White House and he received a personal letter of thanks from the late president. While at the shipyard, he was commissioned to paint the portraits of Rear Admiral and Mrs. Paul Hendren, USN and Rear Admiral T. P. Wynkoop USN. He drew two sketches of General Douglas MacArthur in 1950; each accompanying editorials in the Long Beach Press Telegram. The latter sketch prompted an oil painting commissioned by a prominent businessman in the San Francisco Bay Area. Shortly after his death, the original sketch of General MacArthur was donated to Fort MacArthur, San Pedro CA by his wife in 1964. In addition to his oil, water and casein paint colors, he also did many editorial cartoon sketches for newspapers.
Later work.
By 1949, Meuser had devoted his life to painting full-time. Around 1950 he became interested in abstraction. Previously, his subjects were depicted in realistic terms. He wrote about his painting "Mare Nostrum", "It is far better to capture the glorious spirit of the sea than to paint all of its tiny ripples." The vast majority of his artwork was painted between 1949 and 1957. The variety and quality of his work, as well as the quantity, during this period was significant.
As President of the San Pedro Art Association in 1953, he oversaw three galleries and designed, renovated and constructed plans for the group's first permanent gallery. In 1955 he was elected a member of the nationwide California Water Color Society (currently known as the National Watercolor Society), where he was close friends with past presidents Arnold Franz Brasz and Leonard Edmondson. He participated and won awards in scores of art exhibitions across the country. His award winning painting "Occultation" went on tour in the traveling section of the California Water Color Society's Annual Exhibition of 1962. His abstract work "Northward" was requested by the Long Beach Museum of Art in 1957 and remains in the museum's permanent collection as Abstract Expressionism.