Dino (neé Leopoldo) Mazzoli (1935 - 2016) was born in Terni, Italy, the younger of two boys. He was educated at Oriani College in Rome, graduating with a Teaching Diploma. He then studied art at Villa Medici and at Villa Massimo in Rome under the guidance of the celebrated artist Renato Guttuso, one of the principal artists of post-war Italy. Guttuso painted in a realist style scenes from everyday life and was part of the neo-Realist movement in art in Italy. Guttuso’s influence on Dino in terms of style and subject matter can be seen extensively across his work.

He moved to England in 1961 and produced very little art for around twenty years. He took up painting again in 1982, encouraged by the artist Dorothy Swain who was also resident in Sussex. He later moved to Eastbourne, where he continued to live, and was a member of the Eastbourne Group. His work over the following thirty years was diverse, but continuing and growing from the style in which he began, including landscapes, still lifes, portraits and religious paintings, painted in an animated and exuberant style with great feeling and humanity. Alongside his oils on canvas, he developed work in gouache, watercolour and mixed media, as well as spending considerable time and effort on illustration.

He has had exhibitions at the Heathfield Art Gallery; Eastbourne Adult College of Art; East Grinstead Autumn Show; Brighton Museum and Art Gallery; Towner Museum and Art Gallery, Eastbourne; The Grange Art Gallery and Museum, Rottingdean; Star Gallery, Lewes; Blackheath Gallery, London; Gallery North, Hailsham; and The Premier Gallery, Eastbourne. He had works in the permanent collection at La Charbonniere Art Gallery, Saint Laurent, Jura, France for four years (1990-1994). He has also had works in collections in and sold to collectors in Australia, Canada, USA, Yugoslavia (ex), Italy, France, Holland, Germany, Austria, Finland and the UK.

His biggest work is the Illustrated Bible (2002-2014) where he copied out the complete text of the Bible and illustrated it with approximately 5000 colour illustrations spanning 23 volumes.