Artist Tara O’Neill: Painting the Town Tropical

Even though she is based in Goodland, artist Tara O’Neill fits right in with what could be called the “Naples School” of art.

This past Sunday, on a beautiful, balmy afternoon, O’Neill and her fellow artists came together once again for “Five Painters and a Potter,” an annual show by some of the area’s most renowned artists. Since its inception in 2003, the show has been held at the Clay Place, the workshop/showroom/kiln/campus of potter Jim Rice, which looks just like a tropical artist’s studio as imagined by Hollywood set designers. Ceramics – and on this day, paintings – are strewn liberally around the grounds, and over the decades, the lush plantings have had time to grow to impressive size. Mature bamboo, cabbage palm surrounded by massive strangler figs, podocarpus, gumbo limbos, hanging orchids, and bromeliads create shade, along with a thatched chickee hut with benches covered in ceramic fish. Chinese foo dogs, ceramic pieces not created by Rice, lend an Eastern air, along with the bamboo.

In various nooks and recesses, the painters set up their displays and exhibit their work. O’Neill’s tent is next to the building that houses Rice’s pottery kiln, but served for the day as an informal bar, dispensing complimentary reds and whites. She displayed her recent paintings, as well as a tour through her artistic journey over the years. Tara’s impressionistic oils and acrylics have focused on scenes near her home and the beach, illuminating a diverse look at aspects of the tropical lifestyle.

Her muse has seen her, ala Pablo Picasso, go through distinctive “periods” of painting style. A more recent artistic analogue might be the various “eras” of Taylor Swift.

Every two years, O’Neill says, “I think I’ve found my niche. I start something new, and I’m sure I’ll do it for the rest of my life. First, I did the ‘your backyard’ series – that was the earliest. Then I went to village views, and then my umbrella collection.” After that, she said, she began painting docks. “I was sure I’d be painting docks for the rest of my life,” she said, laughing.

She moved on to pool floats, skyscapes, “village views” (depicting the cottages of Goodland), “music to my eyes” showing impressionistic takes turning sound into paintings, and most recently her “oceanaria” work, featuring sea creatures and maritime scenes. While her work is primarily in oils, some of the oceanaria, such as her “Chopin Nocturne,” are rendered in acrylics with elements of collage. Then there is “Night Hunter,” a three-dimensional figure of a shark decorated to resemble a psychedelic “Starry Night.”

“My work has never been static,” she said. “I did not become an artist to stop evolving.”

Tara stays busy with a myriad of projects. In the next weeks, she will continue her work serving as “artist in residence” at the JW Marriott, sharing her brushwork and insight on the beach behind the hotel every Friday evening from roughly 5 to 8:00 PM. She has a one woman show set for February 2027 at the Petite Galerie of the Marco Island Center for the Arts and a dual show with Judy Chinski at the Marco Island Historical Society in May 2027.

O’Neill came aboard with 5 Painters and a Potter as one of the five in 2013 after original member Jerry Vallez died. Poignantly, another original member of the group, watercolor artist Phil Fisher, died last autumn, but was still represented at the show, with his vibrant canvases of local scenes next to the batiks displayed by Natalie Guess, his wife and fellow artist, another founding member.

Throughout the day, a steady stream of visitors “exposed themselves to art,” talked to the artists and fellow guests, and listened to live music from a succession of performers, all orchestrated and amplified by bluegrass band Capt. Joe and the Bottom Feeders, fronted by Joe McNichols.

Painter Paul Arsenault and glass artist Rick Wobbe, on opposite ends of the Clay Place, showed their distinctive works, and Jim Rice, the potter, along with the five painters, stayed busy all day ringing up ceramic purchases and then wrapping them up for the purchasers.

All the participating artists have gallery and online presences, but the closest to home for Marco Islanders is Tara O’Neill. She keeps hours from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM every Saturday and Sunday in her gallery at 545 Coconut Ave. on Goodland (“unless I have to go painting – or exhibiting”), with weekday visitors welcome by appointment. Reach her at 239-330-7543 or www.taraogallery.com.