Anton Nowels is an accomplished artist whose work continues to be exhibited on a regional as well as a national level.  He is both a Signature Member of the Oil Painters of America (OPA) and the American Impressionist Society (AIS).  At Arizona State University, Anton Nowels studied Interdisciplinary Art and explored contemporary art practices, including performance, installation, and video.  He earned scholarships to the Scottsdale Artists' School to study with figurative and landscape painter Ned Mueller, colorist Camille Przewodek, and portrait artist Romel de la Torre. 

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Anton Nowels has been practicing art since 2000. His first solo show was at age 24 on Grand Avenue in Downtown Phoenix, and has gone on to win numerous awards including First Place at the 2017 Bisbee Plein Air Festival and Second Place at the 2018 Scottsdale Artists' School's Best and Brightest Show.  He also was awarded Best in Show at the 2019 Arizona Plein Air Painters Juried Members Show judged by Mitch Baird. Anton Nowels also has been the recipient of a Landscape Painting Award at the Oil Painters of America National Exhibition. For 9 days in 2024, Nowels took part in the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art where he explored more traditional and nontraditional techniques while focusing more on mood than on 'the picture.' "I want my paintings to seem like something that has been seen — a memory — rather than a record of what is in front of me."  Most recently, Nowels was awarded Best of Show at the 2025 Sedona Plein Air Festival given by Kelly Kane, editor-in-chief of Plein Air Magazine.  As of 2026, Anton Nowels is on the faculty for the upcoming Plein Air Convention & Expo (PACE), taking place in the Ozarks, the largest event of its kind featuring the masters of plein air painting.  "I see my plein air work as both a finished body of work and a way to explore ideas, color relationships, and composition that inform and lead into my larger studio paintings."

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Teaching is also a big portion of Anton's painting process, having taught on a regional, a national as well as an international level, including at the Sedona Art Center as well as workshops in Tennessee and in the Netherlands.  Nowels also participated in the Brinton Museum's Residency program in Big Horn, Wyoming.  As an instructor at the Scottsdale Artists’ School and at the Winslow Art Center, Anton Nowels teaches and explores color theory approaches employed by Charles Hawthorne, Henry Hensche, Sergei Bongart, and Josef Albers.

 

​Nowels has studied both contemporary and traditional fine art, and paints a variety of subjects while continuing to experiment with painting techniques.  Currently, he is working on a series of large-scale paintings that focus on both representation and abstract impressionism. The Maynard Dixon Legacy Museum in Mt. Carmel, Utah, represents Anton’s work and has welcomed him as a guest artist at their Maynard Dixon Country events.   Mountain Trails Gallery Sedona is proud to now exhibit expressive and bold depictions of the West masterfully painted in oil by Anton Nowels.