EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. • This is hallowed ground.

Jackson Pollock's studio floor is splashed with bright streaks of paint. It is as if you are standing on one of the explosive paintings he produced in the 1940s and 1950s that rearranged the art world.

But at this former fishing shack behind the quiet country home in East Hampton that he shared with his wife and fellow artist, Lee Krasner, you can almost see him crouched over a canvas in a black T-shirt, with a cigarette dangling from his lip and a brush dripping with Devoe house paint.

The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, which is open through October, is not a crumbling place where important people lived half a century ago. It is an active arts center, one where children spend summer days practicing the art of drip painting in the yard and contemporary artists exhibit their work in what used to be Krasner's kitchen.

This is not just a place where the artist laid his head. It was a risk for the artists to leave the galleries of New York City for the seashore countryside. But Krasner suggested they move so Pollock could escape the whir of the city and dry out from his alcoholic binges. His work was never the same.

"Moving to the country opened their eyes," said Helen Harrison, director of the center and author of a forthcoming biography on the artist.

Harrison can point out how Pollock's paintings changed when he got here. They opened up, were less congested and reflected the colors he saw through his 11 years on the Accabonac Creek.

This is more than a museum. You can feel the artists' presence hovering if you spend some time in the little house on Springs-Fireplace Road. You can smell the salt breeze that he sniffed every morning on his way to paint in the unheated shack.

Krasner's dirty oven mitts are still hanging on the kitchen wall where she left them, and the portrait of her drawn by a college boyfriend is still in the bedroom. Underneath it is her seashell collection and two vintage suitcases, one printed with the letters J.P. and the other with L.K.

Pollock's paintbrushes are jammed in the hardened paint of cans that line his studio walls. The century-old building was once closer to the water and housed fishing equipment, until he had it moved so that his view would not be obstructed. After he became an art-world sensation, the money followed, and he winterized the studio, put in heat and electric. He also covered the rough-hewn floor, which preserved his paint splashes.

They were discovered after Krasner died in 1984 and the property was undergoing renovations so it could be opened. The floor was a record of his work during the peak of his career, from 1946 to 1952. Here you can see the imprint of "Autumn Rhythm," which is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and "Convergence," now at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y. His footprints are even stamped into the paint in a few spots.

Pollock and Krasner flourished here until their marriage imploded as a result of his many infidelities and increasing alcoholic rages. He died about a mile up the winding country road in August 1956, after crashing his convertible. His mistress survived the wreck, but her friend was also killed. A boulder marks his grave in the peaceful Green River Cemetery nearby.

Krasner's art blossomed after her husband's death, and she, too, painted seminal works. She painted many of her major canvases there from 1957 to 1982. She died in 1984, and a smaller stone marks her place next to Pollock.

In addition to the history of the house and studio, visitors will appreciate the art exhibitions installed in the first floor, where a rusty anchor Jackson and Krasner found on the beach hangs on the wall. Though it's in an old farmhouse, the space was designed to look like a Manhattan loft by the couple, who painted everything white and knocked down interior walls.

After visiting the house, it's worth a visit to the nearby Springs General Store, where Pollock traded artwork for food and drink once upon a time. It serves homemade food and baked goods, and even rents canoes and kayaks. Look for photos and drawings of the rusty vintage gas pumps in front, as well as a reproduction of the Pollock painting that was traded in what might have been the deal of the century.

It reportedly sat behind the couch of the store's owner for years because he didn't know what to make of it.