Ruth McCann/Special to the Eagle

Last year's celebration at Residents' Beach.

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With Independence Day quickly approaching, past holidays spent at the Residents’ Beach come to mind.

On July 4 2007, Tara O’Neill thought she was going to the Marco Island Residents’ Beach to spend the day with family and friends. But when she stepped onto the sand and looked toward the Gulf of Mexico, it was just the inspiration the artist needed for her next series of paintings, later titled “Mystical Beach Umbrellas.”

Tara said that the line of colorful umbrellas between the white sugar sand and the great body of water was just blinding.

When asked why the umbrellas are not anchored to the sand in her paintings, she said that she painted the umbrellas on the beach first, intending to paint the posts later. Then she decided against the posts because the umbrellas reflect the untethered feeling that one gets while relaxing on the beach and letting all the cares of the day drift away.

Tara went with her initial instinct that the umbrellas looked as if they had all just escaped and had gathered at the water’s edge.

Tara works at the Little Bar throughout the year, but when it closes for summer, the artist in her is bursting at the seams. While she paints here and there during season, she does her most intense painting in the summer in her quaint studio in Goodland.

She has formally studied art in various locations and received baccalaureates in both fine arts and creative writing from the University of South Florida. She has been painting seriously for the last 20 years.

Tara moved with her family to Marco Island in 1967, prior to the Jolley Bridge being built. She grew up with Residents’ Beach as her backyard. She recently remarked that MICA has done a beautiful job at Residents’ Beach and that her annual membership is the best value she gets for her dollar!

“The sand at Residents’ Beach is still the sand I remember from my childhood — the white sugary sand,” Tara noted.

She has finished six paintings in the series so far, with two more on easels and another that she envisions and hopes to start work on soon. Her Mystical Beach Umbrella paintings are currently on display at the Little Bar in Goodland, and Blue Mangrove Gallery in Town Center and In the Light in the Shops of Olde Marco carry prints of her work.

Tara encourages island businesses to utilize island artists and for artists to feel free to think “outside the gallery.”

She further said, “I’ve been extremely fortunate to work with the Bozicnik/Bauer family at Little Bar Restaurant these many years, and I think they would agree: it’s good for business, it’s good for art.”

Her artwork can also be viewed on her Web site at www.taraogallery.com.

What will July 4, 2008, reveal at Residents’ Beach?