Ramón's father had some painter friends, Pedro Flores and Luis Garay, Christopher Hall and Darsie Japp, who helped instruct Gaya in art in his early years.

He became involved with Frederico Garcia Lorca's theatre drawing sets and was head of the painting department in the Las Missiones Pedagógicas.

His wife Fé Sanz was killed in the bombing of Figueres, during the last days of the war, where his daughter, Alicia survived.

With the army he crossed the Pyrenees and spent sixteen days in the concentration camp of Saint-Cyprien.

[4] Gaya was considered one of the best painters of Spain of this century and belongs to the last surviving representatives of the generation of 1927.