Acclaimed Chestnut Hill artist Ginger Arthur, 71, will be showing her recent work, all painted within the last year, in her studio at 8042 Germantown Ave. on Friday, June 5, from 5 to 8 p.m. On exhibit will be a few large paintings, some medium and some plein air sketches.

“An assortment of ideas drew me in,” Arthur told the Local last week. “I prefer happier subjects as the world today is dark enough. The colors in the Bahamas, turquoise water, coral sand, painting the sky, water, boats while Jim (her husband) is sailing; flying into Philly airport and seeing heaven and earth; experimenting with lights at night. I’m so grateful to be able to experiment and practice. And those that don’t work get sanded off and painted over. I’m not Scottish for nothing.”

And speaking of the beauty of her paintings, Arthur was discovered by the prestigious Wilhelmina Modeling Agency many years ago. They signed her to a contract, and she wound up doing lots of print work such as magazine ads for Clairol hair products, modeling and acting. She did TV work, commercials, even movies. “Having red hair was my signature,” she recalled.

“There were not that many [red-haired models] out there. But my first love has always been painting, so I decided that if I am going to suffer for an art, I’d much rather suffer for painting than for acting. I certainly did meet a lot of interesting people [while acting], though.”

In her earlier years, Arthur acted on soap operas such as “The Doctors” (“They wanted a red-haired waitress”) and “One Life to Live.” (“I was a singer from Philly, but I got the job mainly for my red hair.”) She was in a TV movie, “Hijack,” with Lindsay Wagner.

After 15 years with the Wilhelmina Modeling Agency, Arthur dropped out of modeling and acting and took a job with QVC for five years but devoted her creative energies to painting. Since becoming an almost full-time artist, she has had several solo exhibits in New York and Philadelphia, has been a part of numerous group exhibits including those at Woodmere and the former Carol Schwartz Gallery in Chestnut Hill, has won several first- and second-place awards, has been in prestigious private collections in Delaware, Texas and Virginia, and has been featured on the NBC-TV “10 at 10” morning show. Her work was also viewed widely on the internet after winning second place in the Chestnut Hill Plein Air competition in the summer of 2017.

A native of Wilmington, Delaware, Arthur always wanted to be an artist. She graduated from the Randolph-Macon College in Virginia as an art major, which was encouraged by her parents. (“Mom had a good sense of color, and dad had a good sense of design.”) While in college, she also studied with a contemporary of Andrew Wyeth, Tom Bostelle, at the Brandywine Valley School in Lenape, near Chadds Ford.

When she was 38, she married Jim Arthur. “It took me a long time to find him,” she said. “We met when he hopped off a boat, and then 10 years after we were married, we discovered a mutual ancestor from the 17th century, whose story parallels the way we met. We will be married for 34 years in October.”

He is a cabinetmaker who recently bought out his partner and purchased a huge CNC router (a computer-driven cutting machine used for carving, 3-D shapes, and more.) “His first job out was a beautiful curved entry desk for the American Philosophical Society,” said Arthur. “Benjamin Franklin would have been quite pleased!”

Jim Arthur has also built a sailboat, launching it at the invitation of the Independence Seaport Museum five years ago and naming it Ginger! “Such a beautiful boat,” his immortalized wife observed. “He is now showing up on sailing videos on YouTube, produced by some of his talented sailing buddies. Really beautiful shots with great music, exquisite scenery and lovely sailing boats.”

(Roger Barnes, a British sailor well known in “the dinghy cruising circles” visited the United States for the first time last summer and interviewed Jim Arthur about his sailboat. The 7.2-minute video can be seen on YouTube.)

Ginger Arthur has also been a flower buyer for the Weavers Way stores in Mt Airy and Chestnut Hill for the past 17 years. “I love it and love working with the Weavers Way crew!” she said. “I’ve learned so much about merchandising, marketing and selling.”

For more information, visit gingerarthur.com. Or follow her on Instagram, where her new work first appears (@GingerGarrettArthur). Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.