Blackman's own work is associated with dreamlike images tinged with mystery and foreboding. In 1960 he and his family lived in London after Blackman won a Helena Rubenstein travelling scholarship, settling in Sydney upon his return five and a half years later. In 1970 he moved to Paris, when awarded an atelier studio in the Cité internationale des arts. He lived there for a year at the same time as John Coburn, and subsequently returned often, as Paris was for him a lasting source of inspiration.