It flourished from 1947 to 1953 — becoming an important center for experimental figure drawing, art theory (aesthetics) and printmaking.
Prior to this, Jepson served as an instructor at L.A.'s esteemed Chouinard Art Institute for a dozen years.
On the faculty, internationally acclaimed figurative artists Rico Lebrun and Francis de Erdely attracted students who later achieved distinction in their own fields such as sculptor Marisol Escobar ("Marisol"), painters Joseph Glasco,[1] Frederick Hammersley and Delmer J. Yoakum, illustrator David Passalaqua, art director Richard Bousman, and architectural sculptor Malcolm Leland.
Show business luminaries of the period such as Vincent Price, Zero Mostel and comedian Fannie Brice (artist/instructor William Brice's mother) often came to the Jepson Art Institute to hear the lectures of Lebrun and to sit in on classes with Jepson, who was known as a consummate figure draughtsman.
Other instructors included Hammersley, William Brice, Howard Warshaw, Milly Rocque, Geno Pettit and Roger Hollenbeck.