Artist in pastel, printmaker and teacher, born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. His landscapes of England, North America and Australia had strong abstract and visionary qualities. Blackburn studied at Huddersfield School of Art, 1955–9, then Royal College of Art, 1959–62. He became a lecturer in 1966 at University of Manchester’s school of architecture, other appointments including visiting lecturer at University of Melbourne, 1969–77; then he was visiting artist at Georgetown University, Washington, 1981, and Yale Center for British Art, 1989. Kenneth Clark and Humphrey Brooke were early supporters of Blackburn, who had his first solo show at Argus Gallery, Melbourne, in 1965. He had a retrospective at Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, 1970, others at University of York, 1978, and Huddersfield Art Gallery, 1979 and 1994.