Manuela Pinheiro, graduated in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, also took the Pedagogical Sciences course at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon and the engraving course at the Sociedade Cooperativa by Gravadores Portugueses.

The artist received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Spanish Embassy and the Institute of High Culture of the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Jorge in Barcelona.

Throughout his activity as an artist he received several awards at national and international level, of which the following stand out in 1968: 1st; Engraving Prize (Silver Plaque) at the Salon of Plastic Arts (Figueira da Foz), in 1969: Acquisition Prize at the II Bienalle Internazionalle della Gráfica (Florence) , Italy) and in 1994: Bial Prize, Honorable Mention with the cover illustration of the book "The Drinking Habit in the Existential and Poetic Context of Fernando Pessoa" , by Francisco Manuel da Fonseca Ferreira.

He has done several works in the field of illustration, as is common in the field of illustration. For example, the cover of the book "Bastardos do Sol" by Urbano Tavares Rodrigues, the cover of the book "O Habito de Beber no Contexto Existential e Potico de Fernando Pessoa" by Francisco Manuel da Fonseca Ferreira or the cover of the book "O Ouro e o Sonho" by Urbano Tavares Rodrigues.