You can find artist Tara O'Neill,
home and studio, in tiny, mitten-size Goodland, Florida, one of just a handful of working villages remaining on Florida's West Coast. A resident of Collier County since 1968, the tropical palette of her environment significantly affects Tara's work. A pile of juicy mangos, a sweeping expanse of the Everglades, cottages smothered under flowering vines, and, of course, the ever-changing hues of sand, sea and sky - these are what we can vividly experience through these paintings.

A seasoned voyager, Tara has formally studied art in Fairfax,Virginia; Plymouth, New Hampshire; Oxford, England; Dublin, Ireland; Florence, Italy; and Tampa, Florida, receiving baccalaureates in both fine arts and creative writing from the University of South Florida. She has also studied informally in Central America, the Caribbean Islands, the western high desert, and places quite off the map. Collecting colors like souvenirs, Tara recommends the Scottish Highlands for apple greens, cobalt blues, and great whisky. Although most noted for her lively oil paintings, Tara has also proved her talents in writing, printmaking, photography, bartending, and sculpture.

Past exhibitions and public works include the Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library Fine Arts Gallery; the Tampa Museum of Art; USF Contemporary Art Museum; Art League of Marco Island; the Von Liebig Art Center Naples; Gators Galore 2002; Dolphin Debut 2003; Gators Galore 2004; Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Center (2004). Tara is also most grateful to have been a participant of the Artists and Writers Workshop for students at Tommie Barfield Elementary School as well as an instructor for the after school art program there.

Honors to her efforts include Bayboro Fiction Award (1994); Thomas Saunders Award for Fiction (1994); Leavengood Fine Arts Award (1995); National League of American Pen Women Arts And Letters Award (1996); Marco Island Chamber of Commerce Beautification Award (2000) for an 85' x 22' mural across the water tank on Elkcam Circle.

Paintings and prints are currently exhibiting at the Blue Mangrove Gallery, Marco Island, FL; Island Woman Boutique, Goodland, FL; Goodland Post Office Mural Project, and Little Bar Restaurant, also in Goodland. For the past five years, each April, Little Bar Restaurant hosts a one-woman exhibit of Tara's work to the delight of both critics and community (April 5, 2008, will be the fifth annual).

Tara O'Neill is a member of the Art League of Marco Island, the Marco Island Foundation for the Arts, and the Collier County United Arts Council.

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