Denisa Mansfield
Denisa Mansfield is a multi-award-winning British contemporary oil painter based in Colchester, Essex, whose work is based on Modern Art and her Living History Collection, an ongoing body of paintings documenting historical re-enactment, traditional clothing, craftsmanship, and cultural heritage as it exists today. Through direct documentation, lived experience and engagement, she preserves disappearing traditions and celebrates the people keeping history alive. Working primarily in oils, she combines expressive impressionistic brushwork with rich texture and colour to create contemporary paintings rooted in tradition. Her practice explores identity, landscape, memory, and cultural heritage, drawing inspiration from both British and Balkan history while bridging the past with the present. Winner of the Geoffrey Vivis Memorial Award at the Royal Society of British Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries, she has exhibited with Chelsea Art Society and continues to exhibit throughout the UK and internationally, with works held in private collections worldwide. Alongside her studio practice, she serves as Exhibition Officer and Committee Member of Colchester Art Society and leads Plein Air painting initiatives and public workshops at Firstsite, Colchester. She also visits local schools as an Art Educator.
Artist Statement
I am an oil painter with a love for Impressionism, colour and expressive painting. My work is broad and always evolving, from modern still lifes and landscapes to paintings inspired by people, places, history and my own experiences.
I often paint from life and observation, whether outdoors, in the studio or while visiting places and events. More recently, my Living History Collection has become an important part of my practice, documenting the people who continue to keep traditions, craftsmanship and history alive today.