By Allison Hersh

IF YOU GO What: Myrtle Jones Exhibit When: Oct. 20 from 4-6 p.m. and Oct. 21 from 2-4 p.m. Where: 112 W. Gaston St. For more information: (912) 234-3313

At 88, Savannah artist Myrtle Jones is still going strong. She paints every day in the studio in the Gaston Street townhouse she has called home since 1963, her delicate hands capturing the ineffable beauty of Savannah on canvas.

Using pale, flat colors, Jones celebrates the serene beauty of Savannah's architecture, trees and people. Her recent acrylic painting focus upon majestic homes in the Victorian district, mansions overlooking Forsyth Park, and modest cottages off East Broad Street, each of which is painted in a detailed, evocative style. Jones makes powerful use of light and color, strategically lacing strokes of white through the clapboard paneling of a cottage in the Beach Institute neighborhood or across the roofline of a Victorian building. "I like things light and airy," she says, her blue eyes twinkling. "I don't want things jumping out at you. I like subdued colors."

Inspired by the French Impressionists, particularly Claude Monet, Jones describes herself as "an American Impressionist," explaining that her paintings are, quite literally, her impressions of the world around her. She typically works from photographs and sketches, creating her final paintings from her Gaston Street studio. Jones's paintings often explore the relationship between Savannah's architecture and foliage, emphasizing the aesthetic interplay between the massive live oaks that overhang the historic district and the buildings that line the streets of downtown Savannah. She readily admits that she edits the landscapes and cityscapes she paints on her canvases.

"If I don't like where something is located, I move it over," she says, absentmindedly stroking her silver hair, which is pulled back into a neat bun. "I'm not afraid to change things."

For example, while working on a painting of a house on Whitaker Street that has, in recent years, been painted in fanciful shades of pink, Jones decided that she like it better as a simple gray house facing Forsyth Park. She changed the colors in her painting accordingly, to reflect her preference.

Jones mixes her own acrylic paints by hand, explaining that she has developed an allergy to turpentine over the years that has prevented her from working with oil paint. She prefers flat, soft shades of peach, cream and green, creating a faded, muted effect on her canvases, as if the surface has been covered with a light wash.

Although she is a prolific acrylic painter, Jones considers watercolor her favorite medium.

"You don't get what you think you're going to get with acrylics," she says. "It's not the same when it's dry. For me, watercolors are just easier to do." Jones excels at painting Savannah's historic buildings, but she is also a master of portraiture, capturing the essence of her subjects as they sit in a white wicker sofa in her parlor, flanked by large green houseplants and giant windows overlooking Gaston Street. Her portraits display a remarkable sensitivity to light, color and form as she paints her subjects in a romantic and distinctly Southern style.

Born in Forsyth County, Georgia, in 1913, Jones was raised in Winder. Suddenly orphaned in 1922, she was mistakenly diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 15 and sent to a sanatorium in Alto, Ga. It was there, in a tuberculosis sanatorium, where she first discovered art. She observed another patient diagramming a drawing, which she calls "the first art lesson I ever had." Jones says that she first began painting seriously in 1950, after spending many years as a professional hairdresser.

Earlier this year, Jones exhibited her paintings at the headquarters of New York-based pharmaceutical maker Pfizer, where she was celebrated for her passionate commitment to creating art.

"Myrtle Jones reminds me of a number of patients I've had the good fortune to care for over the years," says Thomas McRae, M.D., medical director for the Alzheimer's disease management team at Pfizer. "She is an inspiring example of successful aging."

With paintings in the Telfair Museum of Art's permanent collection and in private collections across the country, Jones is one of Savannah's best-known and best-loved artists. She was voted the 2001 Best Local Artist by "Creative Loafing," an award that she proudly displays in her front foyer.

The retrospective exhibit, which will be held on the ground floor of her Gaston Street townhouse, will feature 60 oil paintings, acrylic paintings, watercolors and drawings ranging from the 1950s to the present. An early landscape that Jones created using brightly-colored magic markers was influenced by her trip to Paris and Spain in 1964. A 1963 oil painting of a blonde with a bouffant hairdo demonstrates the artist's uncanny talent for portraiture. Early sketches of the Savannah River, landscape paintings, and familiar local landmarks will delight art aficionados and collectors of the artist's work.

The exhibit illustrates the evolution of Jones's style, including early experimentations with abstraction, delicate watercolors and masterful architectural paintings. In a more recent painting, she uses pale shades of moss, gray and white to celebrate the splendor of Magnolia Place Inn, with overhanging oaks framing the entrance to this charming inn overlooking Forsyth Park. She paints people picnicking in the park and sunning on the beach, enjoying everyday life in Savannah, the city that continues to inspire this talented artist.

"I have traveled near and far, but I always want to come back home to Savannah," she says. "There is no other place like it on earth."