Michela Mansuino is a highly skilled artist whose studio is located in Center City, Philadelphia. Her style is characterized by East Coast American, Contemporary, and Humanist Realism, which she executes with exceptional draftsmanship and craftsmanship. Michela’s artistic journey started 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.
Michela’s childhood was immersed in music, with her parents being classical musicians who played in the National Symphony orchestra. However, her love for 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 for six years. During this time, she also studied 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 art 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.
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. 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. Her paintings are a testament to her maturity and high level of skill, evoking multiple layers of meaning that anyone can connect with.
Michela received a certificate of Achievement from Studio Incamminati and a BFA from Tyler School of Art, both in Philadelphia. She studied and copied masterworks in the Louvre, Prado, Uffizi, and the National Gallery, London. Subsequently, she moved to Florence, Italy, to pursue landscape painting, and studied under master fresco painter Otello Chiti. During her sojourn, she produced paintings which culminated in her one-person show at Gallery K, Washington D.C, and a show in Siena, Italy.
Michela is an instructor in the humanist program at Studio Incamminati, in Philadelphia. She is also the youth program instructor at The Arts of Great Falls, School of Art, in Virginia.
Michela has won scholarships, first place awards and honorable mentions from organizations including MPA, ARC, IGOR, PSOA and the Fairfax County Council for The Arts.
ONE PERSON SHOWS
Vienna Behavioral Health Clinic, Tuscan Landscapes, Oakton, VA and Chantilly, VA
Tag Sale, The Arts of Great Falls Gallery, oil paintings created in the professional program at Studio Incamminati
Twenty + Tuscan Landscape Paintings, “Cesco’s Osteria”, Bethesda Row, MD. “Bridging Her Life” The Hermitage Gallery, McLean, VA
“Italian Landscapes” oil paintings and graphite drawings at Gallery K, Washington., D.C. “La Tavolozza Dorata” Galleria Casa Di Chesino, Poggibonsi, Siena, Italy
GROUP SHOWS AND PRIZES
Zenith Gallery’s 46th Pearl Anniversary group show, Washington, D.C.
“Visionaries” at Studio Incamminati, The Bok Building, 7th Floor
Cover and central article in Elan Magazine, March 2021
“Bridging Her Life”, Elan Magazine, center fold article, June 2006
“Philadelphia’s Freedom” The National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia
“Strictly Painting” First Place, McLean Project Arts, Annual East Coast Exhibition
Art Renewal Center, International Salon Finalist
Finalist and Honorable Mentions, Sculpture and Painting, The Portrait Society of America
International Guild of Realism, Winter Online Salon Finalist
The Jack Richeson and Maggie Price Scholarship; the Philadelphia Foundation’s D. Colman Witte, and four yearly Studio Incamminati Scholarships
Bryn Mawr, Philadelphia, PA Freemans Auction House, Philadelphia, PA
Susan Calloway Gallery, “The Landscape Now”, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Zenith Gallery, various shows, Washington, D.C.
“Three Landscape Painters from San Gimignano” L’Albero Celeste, San Gimignano, Siena, Italy
“The Ten Newest Pernambuco Artists” The Emporium of Bom Jesus, Recife, PE, Brazil
The Philadelphia Museum of Art Gift Shop, Pastry Pastel Still Life
“Award Exhibition for Emerging Artists” Artist’s Equity Association Traveling Show, U.S. East Coast Cities, “View of Pottsville, PA”
Pearl Stein Gallery, Elkins Park, PA Pastry Pastel Still lifes
COLLECTIONS
Bill Travis, various Tuscan Landscapes, Texas
Maurizio Mora, various figure and landscape paintings, Turin, Italy
Susana Lindoso, private chapel, Saire, Pernambuco, Brazil, (32 square meters, mural art)
Pinacoteca of Poggibonsi, Siena, Italy
The Brazilian-American Cultural Institute, Washington, D.C.
Mr. and Mrs. Mike Violette, Portraits and Tuscan Landscapes
Tracey Norre Thomsen, Portraits and Tuscan Landscapes
Mr. Janos Somogyi, various paintings
Mr. Luis Chaves, Tuscan Landscapes
Mr. and Mrs. John Kennan, various Tuscan Landscapes
EDUCATION
Art Business Academy, Red Dot Blog, Xanadu Gallery
Graduated from Studio Incamminati, Certificate of Achievement Philadelphia, PA BFA Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Understudied Professors Roger Anliker, Chuck Schmidt and Stanley Whitney
Understudied Robert Liberace, figure painting, anatomy and portrait, The Art League, Alexandria, VA
George Mason University, twenty credits toward Master of Art Teaching degree, Fairfax, VA
Understudied Master Fresco Painter Otello Chiti, Siena, summers, Italy
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Figure Drawing Level One and Still Life Drawing Level One Instructor, Studio Incamminati
Project Home, lead drawing and painting instructor, Studio Incamminati
Youth Program Instructor at The Great Falls School of Art, classical drawing, painting
American School of Recife, Middle and High School Art Teacher, ceramics, drawing and painting
