Michela Mansuino 571 263-7696           [email protected]                         www.mansuino.com

Michela Mansuino is a highly skilled artist whose studio is located in Center City, Philadelphia. Her style is characterized by an East coast, American contemporary style in the humanist realism tradition, which she executes with exceptional draftsmanship and craftsmanship. Michela's artistic journey was officially launched in Poggibonsi, Siena, Italy, where her mentor Otello Chiti offered her the use of his studio. Since then, she has had numerous studios in different parts of the world, including San Gimignano, Florence, and Recife Brazil.

Immersed in music, with her parents being classical musicians who played in the National Symphony orchestra, Michel's childhood was unique. Her love for visual art was sparked during a field trip to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, where she saw Thomas Cole's paintings of "The Voyage of Life." This led her to enroll in the Corcoran School of Art Saturday youth program, where she studied ceramics and figure drawing for six years. During the summers, she continued to study with Master fresco Painter Otello Chiti in Siena, who emphasized the importance of drawing and used the cast to teach form.

Michela's passion for painting led her to pursue a BFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, where she studied under remarkable professors Roger Anliker and Charles Schmidt. After completing her undergraduate studies, she received permission to copy masterworks in museums throughout Europe, including the Louvre, the Prado, Uffizi, and the National Gallery in London. She then established residence in Florence, Italy, to pursue studies in art history and plein air landscape painting.

Michela's love for plein air painting was ignited by her mentor Otello Chiti, who introduced her to San Gimignano and the surrounding Tuscan countryside. She spent months accumulating meticulous detail in her compositions during plein air sessions, much like Rakestraw Downes, one of her two heroes. The other being Monet, who discovered the light key, the temperature of the color of light, which affects everything. Michela set up giant canvases on the tops of hills with views of multiple horizons and worked on two canvases at a time.

Her oil paintings are panoramas that open up a room and create the effect of looking out of a window. They are documents of harmony between architecture and agriculture and create a metaphysical bridge into the landscape, much like Antonio Canaletto's time machine into a long gone Venice. Michela found it easy to move about and set up her easel in Tuscany, where she made lifelong friends.  


CLICK HERE TO SEE TUSCAN LANDSCAPES


After her time in Italy, Michela sought refuge from the harsh northern hemisphere winters and settled in Brazil, where she continued to produce her plein aire art in a tropical setting. She began her career as an art instructor at the American School of Recife, where she created the ceramics department and collaborated with local artists to develop and strengthen the program. Her passion for teaching was evident as she worked with middle and high school students, inspiring and nurturing their artistic talents.

Michela is a highly skilled artist whose knowledge of art history extends beyond the European Renaissance era. Her passion for expanding her expertise led her to the Baroque era, where she found her calling in figure and portrait painting. Michela honed her craft at Studio Incamminati, a contemporary humanist realism school modeled after the 1562 Bolognese school that was the first major art school based on life drawing. She graduated with a diploma of achievement, signifying a level of mastery that few achieve.

As a teaching artist in the human realist program at Studio Incamminati and a youth program instructor at the Arts of Great Falls, school of art in Virginia, Michela imparts her knowledge and skills to aspiring artists. Her work is highly regarded and is featured in collections in the United States, Italy, and Brazil. Michela exhibits and sells her paintings through museums and galleries in the United States, with her self-portrait gracing the cover of Elan Magazine.

Michela has won numerous awards and accolades, including first prize in national and regional competitions and honorable mentions in both sculpture and painting from the Portrait Society of America. Fine Art Connoisseur magazine featured her still life painting, "Still Life with Raffaello," in its July 2022 issue. In 2024, three of Michela's llifesize figure paintings were selected as finalists for the Almenara Art Prize online Salon. Michela's mission as an artist is to paint in the realist tradition, "creating works that are informative, revealing, and functional in the way paintings can provide a vertical moment in the spirit, in a language that is both universal and eternal" in her words. Her paintings are a testament to her maturity and high level of skill, evoking multiple layers of meaning that anyone can connect with.