About Manu Fine Art

Manuela, the host of the site Manu Fine Art. This the photo opening the About page

Hi, I am Manuela!

If you want to know a few things about the person behind Manu Fine Art, you are in the right place: I’m a Romanian artist whose main tools are the oil paints and the charcoal, although I flirt with other techniques too, every now and again.

My favorite subjects are people portraits, everyday scenes and the charming architecture of my home town (… and everything else that inspires me).

I paint my own reality

Always fascinated by the play of lights and shadows, my favorite subjects are people portraits, which I love to draw in charcoal. Capturing feelings, personality and gesture, solely through different gradations of black (and the white of the paper) is a challenge I never tire of.

I also love to paint and draw people in their daily lives – at home, at work, on a stroll… The human body is amazing and every single gesture is meaningful, worthy to be committed to memory.

Streetscapes, landscapes and still nature also inspire me sometimes, as long as their are animated by the human presence or bear the trace of the human hand.

I only work from photographs, but my paintings are not mere copies of those. I try to bring them to life by subtly emphasizing the main feature I see in the subject – a certain mood, an attitude, a glimpse of their character.

About Manu Fine Art: oil painting in progress
The little ballerina – underpainting

Where did Manu Fine Art come from?

I have an almost 30 years background in computers. Never expected that to change.
Until one day when, visiting the local community center, I happened to pass an open door. I glimpsed a few paintings hanging on the wall and entered the room. Along a windowed wall people were painting, oblivious to everything but their easels. From the back of the room classical music was flowing.

I was in Heaven, and never left since.

More about Manu Fine Art

I am inspired by everything human. The human face, the human figure, the human emotions, the human work, the human footprint on Earth.

My distinctive style

My artwork is realistic, faithful to the model I try to paint or draw, but imprinted with my own vision of it. I don’t produce copies of photographs but rather their version filtered through my eyes.

About the home of Manu Fine Art

A pleasant chaos, smells of fresh paint, stacks of paper and canvases against the walls, the wide screen of the computer and a magnificent light – that’s my studio.
My own personal universe.

My studio is my home.

Two oil paintings in progress on easels in Manu Fine Art studio
Two oil paintings in progress on easels in Manu Fine Art studio

Quality time

There are at least two canvases on my easels and a couple of drawings in progress.
I chose to work on one or another, I pick the brush or the charcoal, following my mood or my inspiration for the day.

Charcoal portrait in progress in Manu Fine Art studio