‘I thought I’d pop into a pub – only to find that Dury and other students were already there. Instead of saying, ‘Let’s get working,’ I suggested we all had a drink, and after that Ian did a very nice painting. I think he was a bit shocked by a teacher being all right, and from then on we were friends, right through’.

[Peter Blake, 2001]

[Peter Blake in conversation with Robin Denselow in ‘Going for a Song’, The Guardian, 15 March 2001]

Between 1961–1964, Peter Blake worked as an art teacher at Waltham Forest College, in east London. In an interview with Robin Denselow for The Guardian in 2001, Blake recalls a day when, arriving late to class, he found that his students had already been sent out to do some sketching. Among them was Ian Dury, who later became the lead singer of the Blockheads, found by Blake in the local pub. Later, Blake taught Dury again at Royal College of Art, helped him to find a flat near where he was living in Chiswick and found him illustration work for the Sunday Times and the Observer. Blake and Dury became close friends, collaborated several times and inspired one another’s work. Blake even toured with Dury and the Blockheads, and, in 1982, Dury composed a theme song, ‘Peter the Painter’,  for Blake’s exhibition at Tate. When Dury died in 2000, Blake designed the cover for the tribute album, ‘Brand New Boots and Panties’.

This watercolour from 1980 is one of several portraits of Dury painted by Blake during the course of their friendship. In it, the singer in his signature ‘punk’ style of disarrayed tartan waistcoat and striped top, with a hint of blackeyeliner, leans frankly out of the image. It’s based on a personal snapshot of the singer, happy and relaxed.