Stop copying.
Start expressing.
Elke Memmler — German master, Academy of Arts in Halle — teaches how to free color from the object and let your watercolors breathe.
See the technique in action.
"The color is freed from the object, the shape changes — and becomes expression."
You've spent years learning watercolor properly — wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, color theory, composition. You can paint a recognizable flower, a building, a sky. And yet, when you look at your work, something is missing. The technique is there. The mood isn't.
Elke Memmler's course is for the moment when technical correctness stops being enough. She spent 30+ years developing "watercolor expressionism" — the deliberate release of control that turns a painting from an illustration into something that breathes, vibrates, and stays with you.
Color freed from the object.
Two projects. Thirty-five lessons.
Full Projects
A vibrant flower bouquet and an old German town — from blank paper to final veil.
Video Lessons
Filmed over the artist's shoulder. Every brushstroke, every decision, narrated in real time.
Lifetime Access + English Dub
Professional voiceover, not subtitles. Watch on any device, return whenever you want.
Two paintings.
Two worlds.
Flowers in a Vase
Bright, color-saturated, almost abstract — yet alive. Soap, napkins, white ink, and the deliberate accident.
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The Old Cityscape
An old German town in expressive watercolor. From pencil drawing to final veil — atmosphere, texture, mood.
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Elke Memmler
Watercolorist · Stuttgart, Germany
For years, Elke painted correctly. Technically sound, compositionally solid — and completely lifeless. "I was copying reality," she says, "instead of responding to it."
The shift came slowly: she started letting the water move on its own, stopped fixing "mistakes", began treating accidents as decisions. That's when her work started to breathe — and she named what she was doing: watercolor expressionism.
Member of the Academy of Arts in Halle. Lecturer at the WCC Watercolor Club. Exhibited internationally, published across Europe.
Words that stay.
Elke has a unique style, very free, perfectly conveys the mood of one moment. My work lacks emancipation, and Memmler has plenty of it.
Free, relaxed, fearless. Wonderful relationship between the artist and watercolors. Bold, easy, expert, exciting and very beautiful!
Impressed by her generous use of paint. I had new inspiration after a quite long painting pause. Great!
I liked the courage and emancipation of the master. Very consistent and understandable technical explanations.
I wanted to see how she works — starting from nature but drawing from herself in many ways. I want to try to draw in the same style!
Very conscientiously and in detail shares technical best practices. We are waiting for the next master classes with her.
Your watercolors deserve to be alive.
- Part 1. Analysis of the work. Composition, color, technique FREE PREVIEW
- Part 2. Review of materials FREE PREVIEW
- List of materials and photo reference
- Part 3. Getting started. Drawing
- Part 4. Getting started in color
- Part 5. Painting the main flower ("King")
- Part 6. The use of soap in painting
- Part 7. The use of napkins
- Part 8. Getting Started on the Second Flower
- Part 9. Create leaves
- Part 10. Working with the background
- Part 11. Painting smaller element
- Part 12. Painting the vase
- Part 13. Bud
- Part 14. Painting dried areas
- Part 15. Go back to the vase. Periodically working with the background. White ink
- Part 16. We paint the background
- Part 17. Adjust the flower and leaves.
- Part 18. Layer of small leaves
- Part 19. Vase. Small parts
- Part 20. Final work
- Part 1. Talking about the picture. Composition, mood, color FREE PREVIEW
- Part 2. Review of materials FREE PREVIEW
- List of materials and photo reference
- Part 3. Pencil drawing
- Part 4. Painting in color. Building background, windows, roof
- Part 5. We continue to work in color. Drawing the rest of the building
- Part 6. Painting the background
- Part 7. We are planning a house in the foreground and a well
- Part 8. Fill the right side of the picture
- Part 9. Outline the back of the alley
- Part 10. The road of old stones
- Part 11. Painting the street on the left
- Part 12. Shape spherical trees in the center
- Part 13. Painting the church
- Part 14. Painting the trees
- Part 15. Create a veil and complete the picture
After sending the application, we will send you an invoice for payment via PayPal or payment link by Stripe (bank cards). After paying the invoice, we manually set up access to the course within 24 hours (usually much sooner).