Last weekend I attended and exhibited at Satellite 4, or, as it’s more formally known the 65th British National Science Fiction Convention, or as that’s less formally known, Eastercon.

It was a brilliant weekend, full as usual with fun events, catching up with friends old and new and more beer than is strictly healthy. On the art side, I exhibited a print of The Sentinel – an original that sold at Satellite 3 I think – the first of the [REDACTED] prints and my newest oil which was only given a title days before, Curious Weather. Come to think of it it was probably still a bit wet when I hung it.

I also put up the original drawing that was used for the convention’s special ale pump clip – “Oook Ale”. Inspired by Sir Terry Pratchett’s Librarian, the beer was banana infused, as was my design. Sadly Sir Terry’s health meant he could not attend but he has been presented with one of the pump clips as a memento. I am quite chuffed to have something I designed in the collection of Sir Terry Pratchett.

The art show was excellent, with guest of honour Jim Burns of course taking centre stage, along with convention regulars Chris Moore and Anne Sudworth. No convention art show is complete without the work of Ed Buckley either, and it was great to see new work from him on display, and of course his cheerful, ridiculously modest self around the convention all weekend. Jim Burns was clearly struggling with a painful hip but managed to be the artist-around-con all weekend, attending panels and presenting a marathon slideshow in which I learned he had had early involvement in the concept art for one of my favourite films Bladerunner. Chris Moore’s views of Pendle were amongst the finest art in the room.

After a fairly short auction, my two prints went off to a new home in Japan, which I think is a first for my work, after a bit of jiggery-pokery around frames etc. (remember that if you ever see a print of mine in a frame, the chances are I can provide it unframed too for ease of carriage, just get in touch) and the Oook drawing fetched some money at auction which will be donated to Alzheimers Scotland, but the final achievement for that design was when the final pump clip was auctioned at the close of the event, fetching £160 for Macmillian!