Salvatore Zofrea Ken Borda

‘I found his face very exciting to paint. It’s a very European face with those giant haunting eyes,’ says Salvatore Zofrea of merchant banker Ken Borda.

Borda is the Head of Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank of Australia and New Zealand and a member of the Australian Stock Exchange. ‘I guess I wanted to paint him because he is a very dynamic guy who is able to deal with all the tension that his work involves,’ says Zofrea. ‘I have to be excited by the person I am painting; they have to inspire my imagination.’

Much as Borda inspired him, it was still difficult. ‘It always is,’ says Zofrea. ‘I find painting very hard. It doesn’t matter how long you have worked as a portrait artist, it is a different adventure each time you start a new one.’

Born in Borgia, Italy in 1946, Zofrea arrived in Australia in 1956 and studied at the Julian Ashton School in the 1960s. He won the Sulman Prize in 1977, 1979 and 1982.