Eric Mannella is an award-winning Canadian artist and co-founder of Atelier de Bresoles. He is an instructor of Life Drawing, and oil painting, and has taught students of all ages for more than ten years. He has an MFA cum laude from the Graduate School of Figurative Art at the New York Academy of Art in New York City and a BFA from York University in Toronto. While completing his MFA, he was offered an assistant teaching position at the Academy under founding faculty member Edward Schmidt. Mr. Mannella is the recipient of a Forbes Foundation Travel Grant and the Prince of Wales Scholarship from the Prince of Wales Foundation. He also received a merit scholarship from the New York Academy. His work has been exhibited in Canada, the United States, and France, and is included in many private and corporate collections.

Mannella has studied extensively with several of the world's leading figurative artists, including Steven Assael, Claude Breeze, Harvey Citron, Jack Dale, Jon DeMartin, Vincent Desiderio, Dan Hughes, Deane G. Keller, Hendrick Lenis, Leonid Lerman, Frank Porcu, and Edward Schmidt. He attended a special anatomical seminar in the dissection laboratory at Yale University. Mr. Mannella is related to Sir William Orpen, an important portrait artist of Irish descent, active in London in the early 20th century.