Right then, as we might have already said while counting down; art hats on, the countdown has properly started, eighteen days to go until this Year’s Art Car Boot Fair. Just under three weeks to go until one of the annual highlights of the London art calendar. The ever evolving thing that is the fair has been something to look forward to since, if memory serves us right, 2005. Yes, like we already said, I should look in up, we have been to, taken part in or covered pretty much all of them here at Organ.
The Art Car Boot Fair is an ever evolving beast, we are a long way from Brick Lane now, well no, we’re not that far away, Kings Cross has been home to the fair for a number of years now, we’re back to the modernism of Lewis Cubitt Square again this year, embrace the evolution and get that date in your diary.
The date in question is Saturday September 5th, midday until 6pm as always and as always, expect far more than just stalls and car boots full of art and the direct access to the artists who make the art, expect performance, food, drink, music and lots lots more, here’s an Organ review (and a bag load of photos) from last year: And so after all the counting down, the 2025 Art Car Boot Fair (almost defiantly) happened. Was it a good one? Yes it was…
The countdown started thirty days ago: The countdown to the 2026 Art Car Boot Fair, 30 days to go – Today the full list of participating artists for the always exciting London event has been announced…
The weekend just past took us to Margate (to see a man about a beautiful 1937 LNER railway Art Deco flavoured observation coach if you really must know) and while we were in town we really had to catch up with Margot of Margate AKA Margo McDaid an Irish born artist living on the East coast of Kent. We are after all counting down properly to the 2026 Art Car Boot Fair now, Margot has some work on view in the window and on the walls of Papillon, a space in Margate, just up from Liminal Gallery and directly over from the Turner Contemporary…
Seeing Margot’s work presented as a flat piece of almost graphic design on the front page of the Art Care Boot Fair website probably does her no favours, to really get hold of the freedom of her work you really need to see it in the flesh, on a wall, in a window, on a canvas, living, breathing, alive, reacting to the light, talking to the viewer, engaging. Her pieces look like (deceptively) simple paintings, an almost illustrated joy that does indeed capture something. I guess you can decide if they tell you something of “what it means to be a woman”? I can’t answer that one, however, I can say Margot’s portraits of people dancing, dogs being good, of woman wearing bright colours certainly tell you about the joy of creativity, of being alive. Some of us might argue that art is a constant battle, that art is commitment, pain, an ongoing fight, a need, that it is mostly a dark thing, for Margot it is obviously a joy, a dance, a labour of love, a bright set of lights. That isn’t to say she is less committed that other artists, that her art is throwaway, no, her art is playful, her colour is inviting, the energy in her work is infectious especially when you get to see it properly rather than just on line… (sw)
Margot explains: “I started painting about 10 years ago and wanted to let my own voice come out in my work. I think that painting women in a fun and vibrant way has developed into a very strong but distinctive style. My women are strong and can be very simply illustrated paintings but somehow capture the complexity of what it means to be a woman. There is something very playful in drawing or painting women doing very little. They sit calmly or sometimes looking sad. I paint everyday….”
Margot will be at this year’s Art Car Boot Fair at Kings Cross, London on Saturday September 5th 2026…
A small taste of Margot at Papillon, Margate…
THE ORGAN 
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[…] August 2026 – Well we happened to be in Margate, we’ve mentioned that already with the previous piece and the fact that the weekend just past took us to the seaside to see a man about a beautiful 1937 […]