As a landscape painter, Allen Whiting can feel the seasons. He has an eye for light and movement that can make you hear the wind howl in the dead of January at South Beach, or feel the spring sunshine bounce off the oak trees in Chilmark in April. Mr. Whiting has been painting for almost 40 years, and he knows his strengths and weaknesses.

And for him, summer is not a time to paint.

“Summer drives me crazy because I feel like I’m supposed to be painting, but I should know after 40 years that I don’t paint in July and August much because there’s too much other stuff to do,” he said earlier this week at his home, farm and gallery in West Tisbury. “I always keep something going . . . but because I do live on a farm I have other concerns and do a certain amount of maintenance.”

Instead of painting, Mr. Whiting converts the two front rooms and hall of his home into a gallery to display his work during the summer months. His grand opening of the season in late June always draws a huge crowd, but in August a quiet change takes place in the Davis House gallery.

This month’s new paintings feature his traditional Vineyard landscapes of Tisbury Great Pond, Menemsha, Seppiessa and other north shore locations, as well as a wall dedicated to the landscapes of Bequia, a small island in the Caribbean where Mr. Whiting and his wife Lynn go every March.

“It has a Vineyard connection because it’s a sailing destination,” Mr. Whiting explained standing in front of a series of small framed paintings of Bequia. “People from around here go there a lot. It was a whaling port as well. Some of these are from 2004 but I decided to show them because I hadn’t before, and I decided to make a wall of Bequia and try to be a little less boring than an oak tree in Chilmark.”

But he does love his oak trees. Is there a favorite? He said he has many. But one of his favorite landscapes is one of the Tisbury Great Pond; the view is from Chilmark to the West Tisbury side. He has several studies of this view in different seasons; one favorite depicts the pond in winter.

“That one seems to have all the pieces together,” Mr. Whiting said looking up. “We had 10 days of really great weather that created great stripes of color.”

Menemsha Village as painted by Allen Whiting. — Mark Alan Lovewell

Although he always likes to show a few older pieces, most of this month’s works are new. Sometimes he returns to work that he feels he could improve on, such as a painting of Menemsha village, done from the hill at the Menemsha Inn.

“I did it from a smaller one and got halfway through it and realized how off I was on virtually everything,” he said of the painting that took up the majority of the wall. “It’s more spiritual than factual.”

Spirituality comes through in many of Mr. Whiting’s paintings; his still landscapes appear to move on the canvas. He has used the same 11 or 12 colors on his palette for 20 years, and even though he tries a new one every now and then, he always returns to his base colors.

“I’m not really sure of the definition of a palette,” he said. “My palette changes according to what the scene looks like. New England can look very much like the Caribbean and the Caribbean can look New England at times.”

For Mr. Whiting, every color has a purpose and a power. “Blue sometimes represents sadness but for me it represents clear weather,” he said. “Red has an emotional power, green prosperity and peace. Everyone has their own issues; we just deal with them however we see them.”

His composition style is realism, simple realism as he describes it. And it comes as no surprise to learn that Mr. Whiting considers landscape to be his specialty. “I’ve always liked landscape, it’s always been a comfort zone,” he said. “Growing up on a farm, I wondered if a painter could have a career and work within the same mile as their house . . . People ask, oh have you been to Provence, you must go to Provence. What about Spain? You haven’t painted Rome? How can you paint? But there’s plenty to do here.”

He continued: “I kind of tend to study the same things over and over. Every time I go back to it it’s because I see it again and think I can do it better.”

Early this week, Mr. Whiting was busy organizing arrangements to have parking available in his field for the agricultural fair. He said he felt the light begin to change in August earlier this year.

But August light means fall will soon arrive, and that means it’s time to pick up the brush again. “I don’t want to have a photograph and sit in my studio,” he said. “I want to be outside and say, paint fool, before you freeze . . . I find I get more interesting things when I pose a problem for myself.”

He continued: “If you’re out on the north shore and the wind’s blowing, there’s so much going on, something comes out from inside of you that you can’t summon if you have all the time in the world and you’re just trying to do it. I feel like it’s something that’s a little more honest in myself. I just take my colors and mush them around . . . I like to dance with it.”

The Allen Whiting Gallery at the Davis House is located at 985 State Road in West Tisbury, and is open Thursdays from 1 to 9 p.m., Fridays through Sundays from 1 to 6 p.m. through September and by appointment year-round. Call 508-693-4691 or visit allenwhiting.com.