5 Watercolor Artists Share Their Unique Processes | Part 1

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From florals to figures, and from the studio to the streets, this two-part artist series offers a wide-ranging look at the medium.

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By Norman Kolpas

When you think of watercolor, what image first comes to mind? Is it a memory of being a child, holding a small tin with a hinged lid, holding a single row of colors, one tiny brush, and an empty compartment for water? Memories like that give us the false impression that painting with watercolors is simple as can be. But in fact, watercolor artists invest thoughtful time and meticulous effort into the creation of their paintings. From detailed pencil drawings to complex paint applications—the watercolor process is extensive and demands unique skills.

To shed light on watercolor and the steps that they involve, we’ve invited five successful watercolor artists to share some works from their portfolio as well as the processes they use to create them. In Part 1 below, you’ll get to know Ellen Diederich, Tina Bohlman, and William Ressler; these watercolor artists have all mastered the art of capturing rural scenes and small-town life. In Part 2, you’ll learn about Georgia Mansur and Julia Dufault McGrath; these watercolor artists employ detailed and painstaking processes to create healing, meditative floral images, the look of stained glass, and vignettes of people in their element.

Ellen Diederich

In 1979, the summer after Ellen Diederich’s sophomore year studying fine art at Minnesota State University, Moorhead, she attended a workshop led by renowned California watercolorist Robert E. Wood. “I made the most horrible paintings,” she says. “But Wood taught me to just put the shapes together like bricks. I loved the challenge and the transparency and the layering.”

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Fast forward four decades to the present: Diederich, who’s been painting professionally since 1985, is a signature member of the Transparent Watercolor Society of America and a founder of the Red River Watercolor Society, based in Fargo, ND, where she lives, and nearby Moorhead. She is also a respected teacher and the author of Progressive Painting: Your Creative Journey.

Diederich‘s Process

Her well-disciplined process captures the medium’s joy. “It’s like playing in a puddle. You can’t control the water, but you can splash around in it,” she enthuses. “I love how the color mixes itself on the paper. And when it does, it glows so beautifully.”

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That’s not to say she hasn’t developed her own detailed methods for bringing order to tranquil watercolors of rural and small-town life in her loosely rendered, “neoimpressionist” style. She’ll work out compositions in flowing, ballpoint-pen drawings in a wirebound sketchbook before progressing to value sketches done with markers or watercolors. “I’ll also do a warm-up painting of just part of the subject,” she says, as well as jotting down her thoughts about the scene. Next, she executes a pencil composition on 300 lb. Winsor & Newton or Arches watercolor paper.

Favorite Tools

Her favorite tool for applying watercolors is a flat 1-inch Winsor & Newton Sceptre brush with a mix of sable and synthetic bristles. “It holds a lot of paint, and I can twist and turn it like a calligraphy pen,” she says, producing distinctively contoured brush strokes. In the later stages of the process, she also does a lot of paint removal. “On one big painting of white peonies,” she recalls, “I erased three-quarters of it to get the layers I wanted. Sometimes, you have to overdo it to know how far you can go.”

To learn more about Ellen Diederich’s artwork and creative process, visit https://www.givinity.com.

Tina Bohlman

“So much of my painting process is plein air,” says Tina Bohlman. “Even the 50 percent of my paintings that I produce inside my studio result directly from work I’ve done outside.” Bohlman is Texas-born, Oklahoma-raised, and has long made her home in the historic little city of Waxahachie, about 30 miles south of Dallas. She is drawn to portraying the small-town and rural scenes she knows and loves so well.

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A talented artist since childhood, Bohlman began painting seriously every night as a single mom in her early 30s, more than four decades ago. After taking a weekend watercolor workshop, “I spent the next 10 years teaching myself” the medium, she says. She couldn’t afford a decent camera to take reference photos, so instead, she simply painted outdoors. “I didn’t even know what plein air was back then!” she adds.

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Bohlman’s Process

Bohlman’s basics start with “a subject that speaks to me personally.” Using a mechanical pencil and a sketchbook, she produces small “what if?” sketches that “break it down into a workable composition,” she explains, “with a focus that somehow tells a story without getting too wrapped up in details. The entire painting takes place in my mind before I ever pick up a brush.”

All About Progression

On 140 lb. Arches oil paper, “which stays flat when wet,” she draws her final composition in light pencil, then “lifts a lot of those lines with a kneaded eraser so they’re just ghosts,” she says. Finally she paints, starting with the sky and other background elements and working forward to finer details. Her paints follow a related progression. “I start wet into wet. Gradually the puddles in my palette go from watery to creamy to sticky,” she adds. Explaining the logic behind her process, she emphasizes that “watercolor has a mind of its own. You’ve got to be willing to embrace where it wants to go. As long as you stick to the basics, you’ll come out with a painting you’ll like.”

To learn more about Tina Bohlman’s artwork and creative process, visit https://www.tinabohlman.com.

William Ressler

Growing up in rural Lancaster County, PA, during the Great Depression, William Ressler “had a lot of time to myself to draw,” he says. After high school and service in the Philippines with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, he entered the Philadelphia College of Art, earning an illustration degree. One of his professors there, W. Emerton Heitland, was “an exceptional watercolorist who took us out on field trips to paint, which got me interested in plein-air work.” He also developed a skill for drawing architecture in perfect perspective. “If you get that right,” he says, “it gives the building a feeling of solidity and reality.”

After graduation in 1951, while working as a freelance illustrator in Philadelphia’s Center City, Ressler relied on watercolor. “You can start one in the morning, finish it in the afternoon, and deliver it to the client the next morning,” he says. In his spare time, while raising a family, he painted fine-art watercolors, too. His works were accepted for exhibition by the American Watercolor Society.

A Knack for Architecture

Architecture—whether charming homes, historic sites, or Philadelphia landmarks—remains a favorite subject. (He is also known for his acrylic paintings of Biblical themes.) Often working on location, he begins by “sitting awhile to absorb the scene. I decide on the center of interest and what will revolve around that.” He may “scribble composition ideas on a piece of paper,” he notes, before sketching his final drawing with a #3 or #4 pencil—“just enough to establish perspective”—on a sheet of Arches watercolor paper that he has wetted and stretched to prevent buckling.

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Ressler’s Process

Ressler first paints the sky, lightly spraying the paper with water. Then he brushes wet into wet “so the color doesn’t gather in tight sections. The sky takes less time than anything else, but it’s crucial to establishing the mood.” Then he works forward, hinting at details. “The viewer will complete something in his mind that satisfies the desire for detail,” he explains, “so you don’t have to draw every clapboard on the house. It’s a mysterious process.”

To learn more about William Ressler’s artwork and creative process, visit https://williamressler.com.

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Head over to Part 2 of this series, where you’ll learn about Georgia Mansur and Julia Dufault McGrath. These two watercolor artists employ detailed processes to create meditative floral images, the look of stained glass, and vignettes of people in their element.

All 5 watercolor artists as they appear in this series:

• Ellen Diederich
• Tina Bohlman
• William Ressler
• Georgia Mansur
• Julia Dufault McGrath

Kolpas is a Los Angeles-based freelancer who writes for Mountain Living and Colorado Homes & Lifestyles as well as Southwest Art. For more inspiring artist profiles, get your subscription to Southwest Art here.

Other related articles:

• The Magic of Mood: Art Inspiration from Splash 21
• Don’t Limit Your Potential, Watercolor Artists
• Watercolor Techniques: Controlling the Paint
• 5 Watercolor Techniques You Can Learn from Winslow Homer, Andrew Wyeth, J.M.W. Turner and Other Famous Watercolor Artists