A variety of artworks were displayed in the studio.

High on a Chilmark ridge overlooking the sea, Island artists Wendy Weldon and James Langlois have shared a studio, home and garden. But after selling the land she bought more than four decades ago, Ms. Weldon and Mr. Langlois are about to start over on the south coast of Massachusetts, where they’ll live and work in a whaling-era home outside New Bedford.

“It’s about an hour from Woods Hole,” Mr. Langlois said.

The Chilmark property actually changed hands a year ago, he said, with the new owner leasing back to the artists as they prepared to move — first the contents of their house and finally the studio, where the couple held a last sale of their artwork this month.

“We have to be out of the building by the first of January,” Mr. Langlois told the Gazette, as sunshine filled the studio with light.

Paintings by both artists lined the walls, a table in a wide-windowed corner was covered with green plants and a pair of energetic dogs named Bennie and Lillie bounded upstairs from the lower level, where they and their humans have been living since the main house was emptied.

“If we had to move out [of the studio] at the same time as moving the house, we absolutely would never, ever have been able to do it without being committed after the fact,” Mr. Langlois said.

In 1978, Ms. Weldon bought the property that became her home and studio. — Ray Ewing

Ms. Weldon bought the land on Austin Pasture Road in 1978, chiefly because her parents lived next door and she didn’t want another buyer to obstruct their view, she said.

“It wasn’t because I was a smart 30-year old about investments,” said Ms. Weldon, who was living in Vermont at the time.

It would be 20 years before a house went up on the property, built by Ms. Weldon and her then-husband. The studio came next, with Mr. Langlois — then a Vineyard visitor based in New Hampshire — installing the floor.

Ms. Weldon was living in California at the time and would not meet Mr. Langlois socially until her first marriage was ending in 2001, she said.

“We just had a lot in common and we hit it off,” she said.

With Ms. Weldon divorcing and Mr. Langlois separated from his wife, the two were cautious at first about beginning a new relationship.

“It was a slow start, a hesitant start,” she said.

The artists will have individual studios at their new location.

As their affection grew, the artists discovered that although they could live together happily, they couldn’t work in the same space. While Ms. Weldon might be filling the air with dust as she takes an electric sander to one of her paintings, Mr. Langlois is just as likely to be working with a fine brush on a portrait filled with social commentary.

Ms. Weldon also likes to listen to music and spoken word while she creates her highly intuitive paintings.

“If I put too much thought and logic into my work, then it becomes very manipulative,” she said. “The energy comes through me. That’s how I work. I just start painting.”

Mr. Langlois has painted in stream of consciousness style as well — he compares the process to Bob Dylan’s writing, circa Highway 61 Revisited — but his art tends to be more realist and cerebral than Ms. Weldon’s exuberant abstracts.

“James is much more focused,” she said.

Mr. Langlois's work often contains social commentary. — Ray Ewing

Working on separate floors of the Austin Pasture studio, the two have firmly established their careers as Island artists, showing their work in gallery exhibitions by curators such as Tanya Augoustinos and donating pieces for local causes. Now they are looking forward to exploring and becoming part of the South Coast arts community, while also taking trips to the Vineyard to visit friends, Ms. Weldon said.

Their new home will be a year-round one — the couple will no longer needs to make ends meet by moving out of their home for four months of the year and into the studio, as they have done on the Vineyard.

And once some remodeling is done, there will be a roomy studio for each of them, she said.