Hi, I’m Manu.
Artist, illustrator, face painter, and creative facilitator based in Brisbane, Australia.
My work sits at the intersection of art, play, and wellbeing.
I believe creativity is not just something we do, but something we experience: a powerful way to express ourselves, connect with others, and feel more at ease in the world.
I've spent much of my life drawing, painting, designing, teaching, researching, making things and finding very good reasons to own unreasonable quantities of art materials. 🤭
My creative life has taken me through illustration, visual communication, storytelling, design and education, and making things with people has always been the bit I love the most!
Why Libellula
Libellula grew from a simple idea: that creativity, imagination and play aren't things we grow out of.
Face painting can be a tiny moment of transformation. A chance to become a tiger, wear a garden across your face, add unexpected amouts of sparkle, or simply see yourself a little differently.
Art-making gives us a special kind of freedom: to experiment, get messy, follow an idea and make something that is entirely our own. Art-making can also become an important way through which to express ourselves without the need to be “right” or “perfect” or “suitable”.
Libellula brings those things together through face painting, art parties and creative experiences designed for kids, teenagers and grown-ups.
A Little Bit About
How I Work
I care about the details.
Beautiful colours. Good materials. Thoughtfully designed activities. A clean, professional setup. And, most importantly, making space for the person in front of me to have their own ideas.
I don't want every butterfly to be identical or every painting to look the same. I approach face painting as a form of wearable illustration — playful, expressive, and thoughtfully designed. I love creating special designs for thematic events, seasons (check my Halloween designs!!) and special celebrations.
Face painting is one of the ways I bring my art out into the world and into moments shared with other people. Sometimes that's a festival full of hundreds of faces; sometimes it's a birthday party; sometimes it's one person sitting in my chair deciding that yes, actually, today they do need glitter.
For me, that's where the magic is — not just in the finished design, but in the little moment of transformation that happens on the other side of the mirror.
And The Dragonflies?
Libellula is the word for Dragonfly in Italian and most Latin languages, including Portuguese (Libélula), my mother tongue.
Dragonflies have always been around through pivotal moments in my life, and naturally followed me through my art and sketchbooks for years.
Symbols of movement and transformation, freedom and magic, they are also a sign of a healthy environment and creatures of extraordinary beauty and lightness!
When the time came to give this creative world a name, Libellula felt it had been waiting there all along.
