A native of Northern Samar, Mario Villanueva was raised in a poor family, but his situation was just a detour. In the province where he was raised, it was normal for those who loved art to draw in mud to express their creativity.

It was in 1992 that he started his artistic journey. He worked in maintenance at Glicos Adventure, an amusement park. After a few years, he continued his journey with his career as a pastor while using art as one of his sources of income to support the ministry. He is known for his unique style of painting, which uses lines to create his subjects. He uses spherical lines, straight lines, curved lines, and others. At the moment, he is handling a congregation, while he is also active in art exhibitions with different groups of artists. Currently, some of his works are displayed in the Francisca Art Gallery and Gallery Joaquin.