Penny Black 1972

I see Peter Blake’s Penny Black, with its play on dark and light, a figure emerging from deep shadow. It makes me think about the act of painting itself, the way images come into being through layers, how each brushstroke shifts and changes the whole. I can almost feel Blake there in the studio, wrestling with the image, pushing and pulling until it finds its own peculiar balance. The colours are striking, they offer a sense of immediacy. I'm thinking about the model's pose and the way the light falls on her skin, I wonder if Blake was thinking about those old pin-up pictures while making it. Maybe he was just trying to capture a certain kind of energy, that feeling of being young and free. Painters are always in conversation with each other. The gesture of the painting, the way the colours interact, it's all part of this ongoing exchange. And like every good painting, Penny Black, it holds its secrets close, inviting us to bring our own stories to the mix.