During the years that coincided with my art studies and early practice Thea Basiliou ran the influential boutique Blonde Venus in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. She also taught students at the QUT fashion department and remains highly regarded in the Brisbane arts community.
This portrait has been a happy collaboration that combines Thea’s unique sense of style with my recent interest in portraiture that explores the sitters’ relationship to dressing as everyday ‘costume’.
During the sitting we discussed her upbringing in the Queensland town of Nambour. Her love of clothing was inherited from her mother- an Anglo-Australian who married into a Greek family. Thea considered whether part of her mother’s preoccupation with expression through dress stemmed from a desire to prove her sophistication and sensibility within the European/Greek community.
