Born 1932, Dartford, Kent, Peter Blake went to Gravesend School of Art from 1949-51. After National Service he went to the Royal College of Art in London from 1953-56, gaining a first-class diploma. Always interested in popular art, he received a Leverhulme Research Award to travel in Europe in 1956. In the early 1960s he taught at St Martin's College of Art and Harrow and Walthamstow Schools of Art, joining the teaching staff of the Royal College of Art in London in 1964 and continuing to teach there until 1976.

In 1969 he moved to Somerset and in 1975 founded the Brotherhood of Ruralists with his then wife Jann Haworth, David Inshaw, Ann and Graham Arnold and Annie and Graham Ovenden. They were turning their backs on abstraction and art dealing with social issues in favour of traditional themes of landscape and rural life. By the end of the seventies Blake left the group, returning to London and resuming his interest in an art reflecting popular culture. For many years his output has included work relating to pop music echoing the iconic album cover for the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band of 1967, later designs were made by Blake for groups such as Pentangle (1981), Band Aid (1984), Paul Weller (1995), Ian Dury (2001) and Oasis (2006). An exhibition Peter Blake and Pop Music was mounted ay the Pallant Gallery in Chichester in 2012.

Blake was elected a Royal Academician in 1981, he had retrospective exhibitions at the Tate Gallery London in 1983 and Tate Liverpool in 2008.

	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
	The Beach Boys
	Babe Rainbow
	The Tuareg