When I start a painting, my intention is to make the picture plane work by focusing on color and shape. A continuing process ensues which balances impulsiveness with critical analysis, adjusting color and shape until the painting feels ‘right.’ I work rapidly, and finding the correct moment to stop is most critical, particularly with water-based mediums whose power often comes from spontaneity and whose brushwork cannot be faked. Putting the brush down and saying ‘I’m done’ is essential.  

The inspiration for much of my work is rooted in the unconscious, whether the content comes from abstraction, or landscapes, or figures or from dreams themselves. I strive to explore sentiments and ideas, to experience them deeply, to think them through carefully and to express them with a joyfulness that springs from the color and act of creation. I try to keep a human touch, too, as I draw out the essence of shape and content.

Miche Booz has been drawing and painting his whole life. He began at an early age – growing up with no television, “I would draw something every day” – and met success as a boy, winning two international art competitions. Miche was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1950 and his childhood was spent in the Middle East and the Indian Sub-Continent. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree from the University of Maryland in 1975 and later went on to receive his Master of Architecture degree in 1987. In 1994, Miche became the principal and founder of Miche Booz Architect, Inc., a small firm in historic Brookeville, Maryland.

His architectural works have won numerous awards in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, where Miche has earned much respect. In 30 years of practice, he has built upon a broad and eclectic range of project types and services, which include historic buildings, building design for faith-based communities, institutional architecture and a special interest in sustainable housing.

But it is in the area where painting and architecture become mutually supporting disciplines that we find the solid creativity in Miche Booz’s art. Miche likes to reflect on his great-grandfather, John P. Benson, a famous architect and artist known for his maritime paintings, who stated 100 years ago: “All painting must have an element of design, and no good painting is badly designed.” This holds true for his entire oeuvre of furniture, houses, museums, rural barns and buildings, and of course drawings and paintings. As a painter and architect, Miche affirms that composition and design are central to his discipline and ethos of creation.

Miche paints abstractly and figuratively in watercolor and mixed media, including  gouache and acrylics. He focuses particularly on color and composition, and his style is distinctive, fresh and alive. With unusual bright color choices, he paints in a loose, semi-abstract manner that captures the essence of the subject, or even transports it into another realm altogether. There is great integrity, maturity and sophistication in the handling of his watercolors, and one is struck by the deep communication between the painter and the painting, an engagement that has developed over a lifetime.