I spent an unusually crisp August morning at the overlook by the mighty Ohio, trying to paint my first barge before it disappeared around the bend.

Sandra and William from New Albany stopped in for a wonderful discussion about art, photography, history and all the state parks we’ve visited. Besides painting, meeting new nature lovers is the best part of my programs.

Still trying to get that barge detail right

Julie, a colleague from my library days found me on Rose Island. It was great meeting her parents, Marge and Del, who made the steep trek down to the site of the old amusement park turned nature preserve.

Julie, a colleague from my library days found me on Rose Island. It was great meeting her parents, Marge and Del, who made the steep trek down to the site of the old amusement park turned nature preserve.

I enjoyed painting with chalk pastels in dappled shade at the entrance to the Walkway of Roses where climbing roses covered the three arches in the amusement park’s heyday.

It was nice meeting a fellow artist and watercolor painter along the trail.

One of Charlestown’s sturdy picnic shelters provided plenty of shade for the evening’s painting activity.

Father and son trying out the water brushes and some new metallic watercolor paints.

There were plenty of art goodies on the table to try out at the end of a perfect day at Charlestown.

This young artist painted two colorful versions of my favorite subject–water!

The beautiful August day I spent at Charlestown State Park on the Ohio River near Louisville was one for the record books. While enjoying a flawless blue sky and crisp breeze, I painted barges on the river, discovered ruins on a mysterious island, and talked to many visitors who couldn’t believe that this was August with such fall-like weather.

Established in 1996 as one of the newest state parks, Charlestown’s 5,000-acre parcel is bordered by the Ohio which is fed by Fourteenmile Creek that runs through the park, one of the oldest unglaciated stream valleys in Indiana. Mostly open farmland or pasture at the turn of the century, much of the park’s reforestation occurred under the resource management of the US Army, which operated an ammunition plant on the property from 1940 to 1995.

For my morning demonstration, I set up my easel for oils at one of two overlooks along the Ohio near the park’s boat landing where I attempted to paint my first barge as they slowly came into view around a distant bend in the river. While engaging in some great conversations about art and life with visitors who stopped by to experience the river, we saw fish nibbling at the rocky edges and plenty of herons soaring high in an empty blue sky. No chance to practice painting clouds that day.

After lunch, I headed down a very steeply graded road across Fourteenmile Creek to Rose Island, the site of a 1920s amusement park that was heavily damaged in the infamous 1937 flood that also affected Louisville downstream. Luckily, the DNR van was able to drive me and all my supplies to my painting site across an old 1913 truss-style bridge relocated to provide access to the island. Only a few concrete and stone structures remain of the amusement park that welcomed 135,000 guests a year, offering rental cottages along the river as well as a hotel, swimming pool, dance hall, rollercoaster and zoo.

I positioned my easel at the entrance to the Walkway of Roses where climbing vines once covered the three arches that can still be seen near the foundation of the dance hall. The arches were also lit back in the 1920s providing a romantic path on those happy summer evenings before the Depression and World War II. Now, only the stone and metal arches remain, with young trees growing in between the posts and nature doing her best to hide the island’s secrets of the past. The purposes to some of the remnants remain unknown, and archaeological digs on the island have yielded artifacts from both the amusement park and indigenous people who lived in the area.

My demonstration along the trail provided a stopping point for the Rose Island Guided History tour led by interpretive naturalist Jeremy Beavins, where I talked to over twenty participants about my program and the supplies I’d brought that day. That evening, some visitors from the tour group met me at one of the spacious picnic shelters for my hands-on watercolor activity. Painting in the golden rays of the setting sun while listening to song birds was the perfect ending to a wonderful day at Charlestown, where I interacted with over 50 visitors overall.

Many thanks to the DNR staff who promoted my program and made it easy to experience the best of Charlestown. I hope to return soon so I can go on the complete Rose Island guided tour and hear the rest story.