Pater Blake - Looking at Painting

Looking at Painting by Peter Blake, 1955
Oil on Canvas, 35.5 x 46 cm

Who's looking at who in this painting!? The viewer in this image seems to dwindle into brush marks (becoming a painting himself) while one of the ladies in the painting 'stares' defiantly back at him (the babies not even interested), seeming all the more solid and real in comparison. Who, or what, in this image possesses conciousness? The 'painting', or the viewer?