Henrietta Manning is an established Contemporary Realist painter based in Tasmania. Her practice spans nearly four decades of predominantly painting directly from life across all genres, exploring environmental sustainability and how communities, memories, and personal histories intersect with place.

Trained at Goldsmiths College and Sydney's City Art Institute, Manning has developed a narrative, site-specific practice. She utilizes panoramic formats to subvert traditional single focal points, immersing the audience in landscapes or interiors. Frequently a social commentator, her early career captured moments in time, including night paintings (Dawn till Dusk) and documented high-rise tenants (The Tower Block Series), exploring the dualities of isolation and community.

Drawn to geographic and social edges, her residencies in historic Hill End, Walhalla, and Oatlands explore how contemporary lives co-exist with the past - a theme further developed through special access inside Tasmania's Government House. Henrietta’s series’ grow from deep immersion in location and research. Seasons, time of day, and light act as atmospheric and compositional devices - as work progresses, she becomes locked into an increasingly short window of time. While her subject matter is instantly recognizable from a distance, up close the mark-making is loose and painterly. She intentionally wants "paint to be paint," not to look like a photograph, drawing viewers in with beauty to confront realities they might otherwise avoid.

A recurring finalist in the Wynne, Glover, and Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prizes, and a multi-time Best in Show winner, Henrietta's work is held in public regional gallery collections.