The August issue of Martha’s Vineyard Magazine runs the gamut of summer activities, from laid-back afternoons on the beach to the high-energy high jinks of Built on Stilts, the Island’s communal celebration of dance.

Master painter Ray Ellis of Edgartown reflects on his work and his life-changing collaborations with the late CBS newsman Walter Cronkite. The magazine visits with chef-turned-farmer Chris Fischer, who hosts private farm dinners in his rustic greenhouse at Chilmark’s Beetlebung Farm. Photographer Elizabeth Cecil turns her artistic eye toward the water and all its sundry pleasures. And writer Moira C. Silva and photographer Alison Shaw explore the quiet pursuit of beach glass along Island shores.

The magazine follows the 10-year growth of the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, and the Broadway venture of the play Stick Fly, written by Vineyard summer visitor Lydia R. Diamond. Rich Michelson, a poet, gallery owner and author of books for children, finds inspiration in his Oak Bluffs Camp Ground cottage, and writer Kate Feiffer imagines a new tourist enterprise: historical reenactments.

Also in the August issue: Winners and runners-up in the 2012 Best of the Vineyard contest; Winds Up! celebrates 50 years in the business of water sports; stand-up paddle boarding takes off; and a look at cottage properties for sale in the historic Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs. The magazine ends with a Vineyard word match game.

The magazine is available on Island newsstands.