Charles Nowell Biography
Born in 1966 in Groveland, Massachusetts, Charles Nowell took to drawing and painting early. He began lessons with artist Scott Jackson at ten years old and continued those classes through high school.
After high school, Nowell sought out Boston school artist Paul Ingbretson who ran a small atelier focused on academic training passed down from the French Academy of the 19th century. Here he studied figure drawing and still-life painting during the school year and returned home during summers to pursue landscape painting with Scott Jackson.
In the summer of 1989, Jackson introduced him to Sidney Willis, an artist best known for his colorful still-life work. Willis was a major influence and taught Nowell to use a more vibrant palette as well as a more impressionistic approach to painting.
In that same summer Nowell’s career as a professional artist took off. He was accepted to the Enrico Donati Gallery in Newburyport, MA and at the age of twenty-three was making his living selling both still-life and landscape. Following this he was accepted at Peel Gallery in Vermont, Blue Heron Gallery on Cape Cod and J. Todd Galleries in Wellesley, MA.
In 1993, the Blue Heron Gallery gave him his first one man show which sold out. As his career moved forward, galleries asked Nowell to focus on the still-life work as it was getting the most attention among art collectors. Nowell continued to have a show at the Blue Heron every August until 2018.
By 2019 Nowell began feeling that the art of the still-life had run its creative course. He gradually began to explore new painting techniques and focused on landscape painting. He now focuses full time on scenes of Maine and New England. Nowell and his wife split their time between homes in Kennebunk and Boothbay, Maine and enjoy traveling around to find new subject matter.
