THE GREENFIELD BEAT: Greenfield artist Mary Cable has been creating beauty for over 50 years

Greenfield artist Mary Cable is all about keeping busy.

“I tried to retire, but it just didn’t take,” Cable said when I reached her at her Zephyr Lake home last week.

Cable, who attended Plymouth State with a degree in art education, is a fine artist, and has been a professional upholsterer and furniture restorer for 50 years.

In her spare time, Cable teaches oil painting, both plein air or in a studio. She has lived in Greenfield since 2014, but is soon moving to live with her daughter and family in Goffstown.

“I teach oil painting in the ‘all prima’ method, which was made famous by Bob Ross on television, but the technique has been around forever–it means ‘all at once,'” Cable said.

Cable says her painting lessons are “serious lessons.”

“It’s not a ‘paint and sip’ type thing; it’s not for goofing around,” she said. “Teaching painting fulfills the desire I always had to teach art.”

Cable takes advantage of the many scenic locations in Greenfield, including lakes, mountain views and historic buildings.

“I live on Zephyr Lake, so sometimes I teach a class at the beach. The lake usually has beautiful foliage,” Cable said.

After decades of teaching art, Cable is still excited to work with beginners.

“I teach all levels, from new painters to people who are more advanced. If someone has no painting experience, I love to see the progress they make in the class. I think the raw beginners are really fun to work with,” Cable said  

She recently taught a class at Rivermead, and hopes to return there in the fall. 

“There are a lot of really wonderful, serious painters at Rivermead and I really enjoyed working with them,” Cable said. “We had a class of people at all different levels.”

While fine art has always been Cable’s passion, upholstery and furniture restoration have been her stock in trade. Her business partner is carrying on the heavy lifting in their upholstery business, Cable’s Upholstery Design, on Russell Station Road in Francestown.

“My other business, in addition to teaching painting, is creating custom slip covers. I cover all of New England for that,” Cable said. “We have been in business for 50 years in the greater Milford area. We do commercial and residential work and draperies, and there is a huge need for it. A lot of furniture you buy today is disposable, but older furniture can be restyled.”

Cable said the older furniture is, the longer it is likely to last. She is a fan of mid-century modern furniture, which she says usually lasts forever.

“I had a couch one time that came from a mobile home, and it was the hardest to take apart of any couch I have ever worked on, because it was so well made. They really made good stuff back in the ’60s and ’70s,” Cable said.

Cable enjoys the artistic aspects of creating slipcovers and making old furniture new.

“Slipcovers can go on pretty much anything; it’s like you have a whole new piece of furniture,” she said. “I have some very cool new fabric suppliers. They’re making materials you can actually work with and that have real wearability.”

Cable is also active in her church, has four children and a bunch of grandchildren. This fall, she’ll be moving to Goffstown to live with her daughter and family.

“I’ll be helping out with my grandkids, and I’m going to stay as active as I can. I’m planning to learn watercolor painting down the line, and I’ll still be teaching classes in this area. I’ll still teach outdoors, and I’ll have a studio space at my new house,” Mary said. “”I stay as busy as that as I can. If you like your work, it’s hard to stop doing it.”

To find out Mary Cable’s art classes or upholstery services go to marycable.art.