He was walking along the state road with his wife up in West Tisbury. He carried a suitcase, and, although he did not actually wiggle his thumb, he looked hopefully back at the car.
 
His name is Manuel Tolegian of New York city, artist and former student of Thomas H. Benton, summer resident of Chilmark. When he was picked up by the Gazette reporter, he looked slightly warm but grateful, animated and eager. He has a thin, aesthetic face and long, slender hands.
 
“Are you going all the way up to Chilmark?” was the first question he asked. When informed in the negative, he concealed his chagrin and volunteered his destination. “We want to surprise some people up there,” he explained. “They don’t know we’re coming.”
 
The people turned out to be the Bentons. The Tolegians had been motoring through Canada and had decided to stop off at the Vineyard on their way home. Leaving the car at Woods Hole, they landed unexpected at Oak Bluffs and, at Mrs. Tolegian’s suggestion, set off for Chilmark on foot. Mrs. Tolegian had never been on the Island before.
 

Disclaimed Responsibility

 
“So far we haven’t had to walk far,” Mrs. Tolegian objected, when Mr. Tolegian accused her of being responsible for the long tramp. “Besides you knew what I was getting us in for I didn’t.”
 
It turned out that Mr. Tolegian has visited Mr. Benton at Chilmark a number of times. He thinks the Vineyard is “one of the grandest places in the world. And the water is marvelous.” Besides swimming, he spends his time at the Bentons sketching and playing the harmonica.
 
“I’m one of Benton’s harmonica boys. I forgot and left my harmonica at Woods Hole this time, but that won’t make any difference. He always has plenty of extra.”
 
Mr. Tolegian, according to his wife, is one of the “promising younger artists.” He had his first one-man exhibit this spring in New York at the Ferargil Galleries. He was granted a second one-man exhibit later on in the spring. He is primarily a landscape painter.
 
Many of the paintings which he exhibited are Vineyard scenes. “The highest priced painting I showed was an oil of Gay Head. Then there was one of Menemsha and a lot of other places. I never did know the names.”
 
Mr. Tolegian was born in Fresno Calif. He was a student at the University of California for a couple of years and then went to New York to study art with Mr. Benton. He has been in New York working on his own ever since.