 Every month on First Friday, the Main Charitable Mechanic Association exhibits the work of a local artist. This month, the watercolors of Carolyn Outwin are on display and Brian Knoblock talked with her about how she began. Carolyn, you have a lot, several exhibits here, several paintings here at the Mechanics Library. Tell me about how it got started. Well, it's kind of a short story. I was living in Connecticut and there was a community services bulletin came to the house and it said that they were offering an introduction to watercolor painting. And I thought, well, that sounds like fun. And I've always been interested in watercolor as a medium. So I signed up for it and they had a list of what you had to bring to the first class, the type of paintbrush she wanted you to have, paper, pencil, and the three colors she wanted you to bring, an alizarin crimson, a cerulean blue, and a Windsor yellow. Windsor yellow is a Windsor Newton, which is a brand name. So you brought the three basic colors to class and then she did a demonstration and said, well, for the first class, what we're going to do is we're going to copy something that I have done. And that's generally how most artists get started. Well, you copy something else or you see how someone else has painted it in order for you to learn how to paint. And then what happened? What happened? Well, it's a hobby that kind of got out of hand. I really, really enjoyed it. I love working with watercolors. I love the sea. I love the sky. I love the challenge of how do you render something that has no color of its own. Water has no color, sky has no color, air has no color, but yet there's color all around you. And when you go to the beach in the summer and you see the sky and you see the reflected light, it's a challenge on how do you make what has no color have a color. Before you took the class the first time, had you ever painted or sketched before? No, I hadn't. I took a high school art class, but that's just elaborate babysitting or it wasn't my school. So I really didn't have any experience with painting at all. And why did you choose, you have a lot of seascapes and that sort of thing. Why do you choose that particular location and venue for your work? Well, I've always been drawn to the water. I love the sea and I grew up by the sea. And my mother was from an island further up the coast, Campobello. And we spent all of our summers there and looking at the sea. So I've always been surrounded by it and I've always loved it. Do you paint what you see or paint what you imagine? A little bit of both. I also do some composites where I take photographs or images I've seen elsewhere and put them together to create a scene. And what does a painting give back to you? Oh my, that's quite a question. It's the ability to create something beautiful, something that inspires me and something that I feel that I can share with someone else. The beauty of nature and the power of the sea. In addition to being an artist, you're also the president of the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association. Tell us about that and you have artists here every first Friday. Is that right? Yes, we do. The Maine Charitable Mechanic Association was founded in 1815. And I am the first woman to be president of the association. On the first Friday art walk of every month, we do sponsor a different artist. We've had all kinds of art, everything you can imagine. We've had sculpture, we've had painting, we've had encaustic art, which is painting with wax. We're on the gamut, we've had it all. Your location is a bit off the beaten path. It's on the second floor, just on Congress Street in your building here. But I know that you get people who come upstairs and discover the library, which is an unusual place. Talk about that for a bit. It is a little disconcerting to have people say, I've lived here my whole life. I didn't know this existed. We are the eighth oldest membership library in the United States. The library was formed in 1820 for the improvement of the mind of the apprentices. So at a period of time when most people were illiterate, the masters who formed this association were not only teaching the skill to trade to their apprentices, but they were teaching them to read and write as well. And that's kind of a big deal. And the library itself is a membership library, so you become a member of a fee and you can take out books, right? Yes, that's right. It's $25 for the year, and it not only gets you into the library, it gets you into our travel lectures series, which will be starting again on October the 1st. We hold them out at Catherine Macaulay High School, and we are now celebrating 100 years of travel lectures. They started in 1911. And if people want more information about the association or the art works, that's a thing. Where can they go? They can go to our website, maincharitablemechanic.com, or they can call us at 773-8396, or they can stop by the library any Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday from 10 to 3.