At age fifteen Ted Seth Jacobs won first prize in a nationwide contest for high school art. In 1952, he won first prize in the nationwide Stacey scholarship contest.

The author began exhibiting in New York galleries in 1952. Since then, he has had over seventy one-man exhibitions in America and in France, where he continues to exhibit. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, and received hundreds of portrait painting and drawing commissions, as well as a large number of commissions for mural paintings. In the 1980's, two of his books were published by Watson-Guptill.

''I learned how and what to teach from both my students and my own work. From students I learned what they most needed at any moment. I don't teach from a predetermined schedule, but more organically respond to what I perceive as most important. I use lecture-demonstrations and individual critique.