Margaret Zox Brown is an oil painter, painting the beauty she has found in the everyday. Her paintings are figurative representations and large in size, signifying the abundance of life. And, because she sees and thus expresses these everyday moments as exceptional, she also makes them expressive in color with the intention of seeking pure awe.

Brown's work is about connection. Her paintings are of authentic feelings and intimate realities that she has experienced firsthand. During her most challenging times of living in New York as a single mother, she chose to paint the beauty she saw. This is what got her through difficult times. Today, she makes work that highlights the beauty of everyday life. This focus, expressed through representational painting, allows anyone to identify with it.

Brown starts by recognizing a feeling, mood, moment, gesture, or even shape that moves her. Then she looks for the scene or objects that will help bring these feelings out. She draws initially to both find the essence of these feelings and also in order to see. Then she paints, getting out the whole emotion she is exploring. All these steps, from thinking and feeling to drawing, painting, and finishing, allow Brown to connect organically to each painting, satisfying the fullness of feeling she is pursuing.

Brown lives in New York City's Greenwich Village and works in her Garment District studio. She attended the Chapin School in New York City and Trinity College in Hartford, CT, where she studied Psychology. For nearly three decades, she perfected her painting technique in weekly studio sessions at the 92nd Street Y. Brown's paintings are in private collections worldwide, as well as public spaces including Danny Meyer’s restaurant Maialino and the lobby of the commercial building 462/470 7th Avenue, NYC, among others. The artist has been featured in notable interviews, both on television and in print.

Your paintings focus on finding beauty in everyday life. What draws you to these small, meaningful moments?

I found that when having my own struggles in life, I was able to get past them by choosing to be happy and focusing on the beauty all around me. I saw the world through a different lens where I could not merely appreciate but be awestruck by everyday moments that at one time might have gone unnoticed. My focus on my painting was also a tremendous help for me as it gave me joy to get immersed in creating with paint. Eventually, my way of being affected my art. And my artwork evolved to a place where those simple, everyday moments are expressed with the magnificence that is so meaningful to me and hopefully to my viewers too.

How do you approach turning a feeling or mood into a large, expressive painting?

Once I think of a feeling I want to express, I think of different scenes or moments or even shapes and colors that can help me reveal that in a painting. Then I take many photos, which I piece together for some sketches that will be just enough to express the idea of that feeling. Once I have my sketch and have determined the size of the painting (how I want my viewer to experience this moment; as an observer or right in there as a participant, for example), I will draw my images with paint on an already color-washed canvas. This will eventually become the template from which the entire painting and emotional expression will emerge. And this part takes me the longest. It is most important for me to get the majority of the feeling from the way the images are drawn and laid out on the canvas. The color and all the paint application that then comes, comes out of me almost unknowingly as I connect to the feelings I have now set into motion on my painting.

You’ve said painting helped you through tough times as a single mother. How does that experience influence your work today?

I am always aware of how I felt during those times and the spiral of negativity it created. I no longer live that way, consciously. And so, my artwork is the fortunate recipient of the beauty that I see in all of life. That is what I am expressing, always.

Your use of color is bold and emotional. How do you decide on the colors that best express your vision?

This question is not so straightforward for me to answer. I have been painting for a very long time now, and I have a certain color language that I love and gravitate towards. The painting with its specific emotions guides me, and I end up putting down colors that make me feel how I want to feel around the painting I am working on. I am always seeking moments of awe, so really pushing the color in certain spots on the painting, creating a journey on the canvas for the viewer where they are wowed in one spot and pause or breathe in another is what I am seeking to achieve. I look at all my work backward through a mirror to ensure that it all is working as I desire.

What’s the most rewarding part of sharing your work with others and seeing their connection to it?

I am a very sociable person. I have many close connections in my life, and they mean everything to me. I am creating this work in order to connect with the world. I am making art that anyone can relate to because of the familiarity of the subject. And, at the same time, I am elevating what I am sharing to a place of magnificent beauty. I am doing this so that the world who gets to experience my art can feel and experience their own everyday moments with such reverence. Making my art and putting it out into the world is a constant source of fulfillment for me as an engaged person with all of life.

What advice would you give to someone looking to find beauty and inspiration in their everyday life?

Years ago, the doorman in my studio building said to me, "Smile! Your world will change. You will see that when you smile." It was just the right message for me at the right time. And from that point on, I went through life, looking through a more positive, happier lens. And my life did indeed change, for the better. There is so much beauty and goodness in the world. Why not let that be your focus and then enjoy the experiences and gifts that life will bring to you when you do that?