Margo McDaid left her job as a primary school teacher ten years ago after one of her pupils was murdered, prompting her to re-evaluate her life and pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an artist. After moving from London to the Kent coast, she made a commitment to create at least one painting every single day. Today, after a decade of staying true to her promise, she has sold more than 16,000 of her joyful, bold, color-packed pictures, mostly celebrating women, under the name Margo in Margate.
While Drew Barrymore is among the fans of her work, a picture painted by Margo in Margate has also been seen weekly on Celebrity Gogglebox behind models Munroe Brugoff and Leomie Anderson. A solo exhibition of her paintings, consisting of 126 pictures of woman, will be on display at the Helm Gallery in Brighton, and Banksy’s spokesperson is now her agent.
In her Ramsgate studio, Margo describes how she started drawing small pictures at a desk in her bedroom every night before committing to her one-painting-a-day project. She clarifies that, “It was never one drawing. It was like 10 or 20, and it just ignited this passion that I couldn’t switch off. It became addictive and compulsive and normal. I just draw every single day.”
For Margo, art played an extensive role in her healing and recovery process after the tragedy she experienced as a teacher, which dramatically altered her life. Back in the 1990s, she moved from Northern Ireland’s County Tyrone to study metalwork at Camberwell Art College, and after the incident, she decided it was time to return to her first love.
Margo in Margate’s work adorns the walls of many local independent stores and has also been sold at stores such as Turner Contemporary art gallery in Margate. At Katie Barber of Albion stores, a fashion boutique, Margo’s canvases are placed between their coats and collections. She says, “People that have a really nice sense of style and are looking to make their homes beautiful. We get those people coming in.
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