Other mediums are welcome. Please continue below for the oil painting supply list.

Supply List for Oil Painting:

Brushes – sable or bristle, filbert, any brand will be good. I personally like Robert Simmons bristle.
size #2 (2 brushes)
size #4 (2 brushes)
size #6 (2 brushes)
size #8 (2 brushes)
size #12 or #14 (1 brush) fan brush; small and a large (optional, but very useful)

Paints – Gamblin paints or any other professional brand.
Titanium white (large tube)
Yellow ochre
Cadmium yellow or similar
Indian yellow
Alizarin crimson or magenta
Cadmium red light
Venetian red or English red
Viridian green or similar
Burned umber
Ivory black
Ultramarine blue
Turquoise

Gamsol
Damar varnish (liquid not a spray)
Aluminum Palette Cup
Palette (no paper please, solid palette; glass or wood)
Vine charcoal

Canvas – (based on your chosen photo reference)
3 canvas boards 8″x10″
2 canvas size 16″x20″

This online course requires the use of the Zoom program. You will need a computer, tablet or smartphone (with camera preferred) and internet. To download the program, click on the following link: zoom.us/download.

A Zoom meeting link will be sent to you up to 24 hours prior to your class start date. If you need help with Zoom, please let us know and we will schedule a short tutorial for you prior to your class.

Leon Okun was born on February 6, 1980 in a small town in Siberia, Russia. In 1993 Leon’s family immigrated to San Diego. His interest in figurative art developed while taking art classes at Mesa Community College, where he was given complete freedom of exploration. This freedom led him to a profound interest in figurative drawing and propelled Leon to pursue the kind of program that would satisfy his passion for fine art.

Leon’s educational art journey began at Watts Atelier (a small private art school with an emphasis on the traditional fine art), where he studied for two and a half years. There he met Ron Lemen, an art instructor at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art. To this day, Leon gives Ron Lemen credit for inspiring him to believe in himself and to set the highest possible standards for personal artwork.

In 2003, Leon returned to Russia to explore Russian art schools and museums. Painters like I. E. Repin, V. Serov, and V. Surikov captured his interest and helped him develop the best possible vision any artist can have: To become a serious painter.

It was then, in 2003, that Leon decided to apply to the Repin Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Repin Academy of Arts is a two hundred and fifty-seven year old historic institution. It has been the birthplace of the most famous Russian painters. It was clear to Leon that if he wanted for himself the best art education in the world, than it would have to be the Repin Academy of Arts.

After two years of intense preparation Leon got accepted to the Academy, where he studied for six years and received both a Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Art and a Masters Degrees in Fine Arts.

In 2011, Leon returned to San Diego and immersed himself into teaching, sharing with his students the wonderful education he had received at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.

Successful in his own right as a Artist and as a Teacher, Leon now inspires his students to search our their dreams and to strive to achieve their own personal best.

Leon is a member of the California Art Club, the American Portrait Society, the American Impressionist society, and the Plein Air Painters of San Diego.

Leon has participated in and won numerous art competitions in San Diego and throughout Southern California. His style of painting is based on the traditional European classical art, and color pallet that so many Russian painters are famous for.

Most recently Leon had several successful exhibitions that drew a great deal of interest in the art community.