Chief Aina Onabolu was born in the year 1882.  He was the first Nigerian artist and he had no formal training in art at the beginning of his career.

He started to practice art in 1890 during which he mastered the subjects of painting landscapes and portraits.  In 1920, when he went to England and Paris to study art, returned with more knowledge of painting.  At the completion of his training, he was awarded a diploma in Fine arts.  He was the first Nigerian trained artist to teach art in school. 

Onabolu was an accomplished portrait and he was the one who produced the portrait of Rt. Rev. O. Oluwole who was clad in dark-blue red and white vestment putting his right hand on the Bible. Onabolu’s philosophical belief was that art as a universal human language which goes beyond ethnic and cultural barriers. Chief Aina Onabolu died in 1963.