Patricia N. Nanon, the feisty choreographer who founded The Yard as an informal dance theatre project in 1972, next month will grant full ownership of her multimillion dollar property in the wooded hills of Chilmark to the singular Island arts colony.

It's raining outside, so artist Allen Whiting is doing a quick inventory of the leaks in his West Tisbury barn-turned-studio, making sure that stacks of finished oil paintings are out of the way of the runoff. Repairs can be put off to another day.

It will be a landmark event for the Island and for the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust when the Old Sculpin Gallery opens its doors on Thursday afternoon to unveil a 40-piece retrospective of paintings by the old master of a modern era, Ray Ellis. The oil and watercolor landscapes selected for the three-day show - gathered from private collections across the country - were all painted en plein air on the Island. The show will close just two days later at 9 p.m.

You can tell from his paintings that Stan Murphy likes work, especially the physical kind that toughens the hands.