WINCHESTER - Long time Winchester portrait artist Mary Jacobs, 84, looks as though she's forty five, and, as she says herself, acts "as though I'm thirty!"

A mother of five children — Peg, Barbara, Mary Anne, Richard and Ralph Stone — Jacobs continued to do portraits while raising her family with her late husband Ralph Jacobs. Jacobs says although she no longer markets her skill as a portrait artist, she still does accept commissions.

Jacobs is very busy with her portraits, with her piano studies at a Winchester private studio, and with driving to her bi-weekly water aerobics at the Boys and Girls Club of Woburn. During her interview with the Daily Times Chronicle, Jacobs was interrupted four times by phone calls from friends.

Jacobs is also writing a book. She asked, "Did you ever try writing a book? It's the most wonderful pastime!" Jacobs added, "My favorite fiction is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. The prose is magnificent — stimulating!" Jacobs said Bronte's writing "is my model."

Jacobs moved to a Main Street condominium from her Walcott Road home after her husband's death five years ago. The entire apartment has the ambiance and feel of an artist happily at work. The new apartment's walls are covered with portraits by Jacobs and her husband, which give the feel of a small gallery. Jacob's easel stands in the middle of a work room just off a cozy living room.

Jacobs' sense of humor is apparent in a fanciful phone stand she rigged up. Jacobs took a table lamp and draped on top of it a black 1920s style, flapper's bowl-like hat with a thin brim. At the base of the lamp are two high-heeled red shoes that hold cell phones. In the kitchen, pots and pans hang over the cooking area, looking to be "at the ready" for the next chef's grand flourish.

Jacobs said she has won many first prizes in Winchester Art Association shows. Jacobs also noted that in 1950, she won a gold medal in a juried art competition, The Richard Mitton Memorial Award for portraits. Jacobs also said she has done portraits of sports starts Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and Johnny McKenzie. These portraits, said Jacobs, were offered as a special prize at the Channel 2 auction. Then friends of Derek Sanderson had Jacobs do a portrait of him, said Jacobs. She noted that she also did portraits of the 12 past presidents of the Old Charlestown Savings Bank.

Ralph Jacobs, portrait painter

Jacobs' late husband Ralph was also a portrait artist, but worked in the business machine business to support his family. As an artist, Ralph worked in oils. Mary works exclusively in pastels, that is, with chalks.

Mary's son, Ralph Stone Jacobs, who now lives in Whitefield, N.H., has become a successful professional portrait artist who works in oils. One of his commissions was to paint New Hampshire's first woman governor, Jeanne Shaheen.

Jacobs said she became interested in pastels when as a young artist she took a six-week summer course in pastels (chalk) at the Scott Carbee School of Art. She discovered that for her, pastels were easy, whereas, she observed, "oil is not easy."

Jacobs met her future husband Ralph at art school, and they studied art in evening school for four years.

When Jacobs was ten years old, her father took her to see a Shirley Temple movie. Jacobs was enthralled with Temple. Jacobs recalled that in her bedroom, she had a pad of paper and kept drawing in it until the sketch of Shirley Temple "matched the image in my mind."

During High School at Notre Dame Academy in Tyngsboro, Jacobs loved to make color chalk sketches of popular actors and actresses including Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.

Jacobs' first commission was from a mother who asked Jacobs to make portraits of her two children. Jacobs recalled, "I charged $15 each — and the portraits weren't worth more!"

Later, Jacobs had shows not only locally but also in Vergennes, Vermont where an influential family had commissioned Jacobs and helped her reputation spread.

One of Jacobs' most recent commissions is from Mr. and Mrs. Dan Srelow of Winchester to do a portrait of their six year old daughter, Maia. Jacobs observed that to draw a portrait, you have to be extremely precise about the relative length and proportion of the facial features.

Jacobs also noted that if a portrait is not going well, she does not try to redo it, but instead starts the portrait again. On a recent portrait, Jacobs observed she made three tries before getting it right.

Jacobs used to draw by having the subject pose for long periods. But she observed that it is especially difficult to get children to pose. Now, Jacobs works exclusively from photos. Sometimes, the portrait is a composite of two or more photos.

If you have a photo of someone, why ask an artist to make a portrait in another medium such as chalk or oils? Indeed, just looking at how Jacobs' portraits seem to bring a person's essential features out in a warmer manner than the original photos is only part of the answer. Jacobs admits she does not know how she does the next thing, namely, she produces portraits that can give the impression of bringing the person to life right in front of you.

Jacobs did observe, "I'm able to dramatize — a lot of it is cleverness in applying the media."

And then there is artistic freedom. Jacobs said she was going to do a new portrait to replace one of her late husband in which he is shown smoking his ever-present corn-cob pipe. Jacobs quipped that as an artist, "I can remove the pipe."