Lisa Ober’s portraiture now hangs inside the Missouri Capitol’s “Hall of Governors.” Here at Heartland, this artist, teacher, and gallery founder has been a fixture in the evolution of HAC.
By Jennie Quick
Lisa Ober is one of those rare individuals who discovered her vocation at a very early age. When Lisa was about five, her mother commissioned a local pastel artist to paint a portrait of Lisa and, eventually, portraits of her three younger sisters. Watching the artist at work in her studio, Lisa found her calling; she knew that was what she wanted to do with her life.
As a child, Lisa would study her portrait hanging in the family house to discern how the artist did what she did. In her art classes at school, she experimented with myriad mediums until one day, when she was about 14 or 15, she came across an artist demonstrating pastels at a traveling art show in a local mall. Lisa was immediately entranced. The artist gave her some samples and detailed instructions on how to work in pastels. Over that weekend, with pastel supplies she begged her parents to purchase, Lisa painted a portrait from a magazine photo. On Sunday, she brought her work back to the pastel artist for a critique. He was very encouraging, and Lisa knew she had found her medium.
Fast forward a few years, and we find Lisa working towards a graphic design degree at Washington University to allay her father’s concerns about the difficulty of making a living in fine art. To augment her income during college, she began to paint portraits of fellow students, neighbors, and friends.

Lisa Ober stands inside the Capitol before her portrait of outgoing Governor Mike Parson. The 30×24 oil painting resides in the Capitol’s newly-founded “Hall of Governors.”

“Dog Portrait,” 24×30, pastel.
Finally, out on her own, she thought maybe, with luck, she could become a portrait artist full-time. She spent a year working at a home improvement company, working early in the morning and painting at night. After a year of falling asleep at her desk and recognizing she couldn’t keep burning the candle at both ends, Lisa decided to follow her heart to a fine art career. She began by painting portraits of pets (thanks to customers she met through the home improvement company) and setting up her booth at dog and cat shows to acquire clients. Pet portraits led to people portraits and the successful portrait business she enjoys today.
Fast forward again, and we find Lisa and fellow artists starting up an art gallery – Ober Anderson Gallery (later OA Gallery), first in Clayton and then in Kirkwood, where the Heartland Art Club is today.
Interestingly, a gallery for a portrait painter presents unique challenges, but Lisa loved getting out of the studio and meeting other artists with similar interests. Nevertheless, portraits are commissioned by individuals for themselves, whereas galleries offer artworks to the public. Lisa stretched herself to start painting still lifes for sale in the Gallery and found that she loved it. Still life painting allowed her to use more colors in the pastel toolbox beyond the limited palette needed for portrait painting. Painting objects rather than people opened up a new range of brilliant colors and allowed her to experiment with abstraction, cropping, new vantage points, creative subjects, and oversizing. Her latest experiments are with landscapes.
Lisa teaches many workshops in painting still lifes and portraits of both people and pets. She says that working with pastels differs from painting with a brush. Holding the actual medium with your fingers turns the pastel stick into an extension of your hand. You need to have lots of pastel sticks in a variety of colors as pastels are not exactly like oil, watercolor, or acrylic. Although you can combine colors, pastels require many colors and values to create a desired finished painting. Pastels are applied in a series of layers, typically middle and darker values initially, followed by lighter colors as a painting progresses. Different brands have different textures; some work well with others, some work better as a top layer. You learn by experience. Most artists who work in pastels work in an impressionistic style. Not Lisa – she always tries to push pastels “to behave themselves.” She can teach you how to make a sharp, detailed line with a fat, clunky pastel. She finds that older adults do a much better job of improving their skills than any other age group and credits their lifelong experience of “seeing.”

“Child Portrait,” 24 x 18, pastel.
According to Lisa, the key to representational art is observation. “Anyone can learn to use the tools,” she says. “Skills can be developed. But visual experience is the kicker that sends a piece over the edge. Older adults can be wonderful artists in a short period of time!”
As OA Gallery continued to evolve, artists including Steve Morris, Shawn Cornell, and Lisa began talking about the lack of a Midwestern organization for representational art. They put together a presentation with a proposal and invited people they thought might be interested. They expected about twenty people. To their amazement, over eighty people showed up. With a one-time contribution of $100 from each “founder” at that first meeting, the Heartland Art Club was on its way, taking over the Kirkwood space from OA Gallery. With the support of friends and enthusiastic volunteers, Heartland has become a vibrant and lively space today, hosting exhibitions, workshops, and classes and exhibiting a range of works by outstanding representational artists from the region. As a founder and Signature Member of Heartland, Lisa is “thrilled to see this many members from the community interested in representational art.” She is “grateful for all my art friends, volunteers, and supporters of the organization.”
In 2024, Lisa realized the dream of every portrait painter: to paint a portrait of someone noteworthy that would hang in a public place. She received a commission to paint the portrait of Mike Parson, the outgoing governor of Missouri. Earlier, through the recommendation of a friend and client, and after an interview process, Lisa was selected to paint the portrait of Teresa Parson, Missouri’s first lady, which will remain on display at the Governor’s Mansion along with paintings of previous first ladies. It was the success of that painting led to her commission for Governor Parson’s portrait. The portrait was recently unveiled at a ceremony in Jefferson City, and at the same time, the governor unveiled the new “Hall of Governors” in the Capitol Building, where his new portrait now hangs. Governor Parson is the first governor of the state to search out, refurbish, and display all the portraits of past Missouri governors together with proper lighting and historical context. Beneath each portrait is a QR code containing the history of each governor. As they left the ceremony, Governor Parson leaned over and said to Lisa, “Now we’re both part of history!”