THE annual meeting of the Salisbury Group of Artists (SGA) on Saturday, March 29 was well attended despite the outdoor temptations of a beautiful, warm spring day.

The accounts showed that the past year had generally been a successful one.

Picture sales at the summer exhibition had amounted to £2,415, while sales at the winter exhibition at Salisbury Hospital had made around £1,000.

The chairman, Austin Thorp, reminded his audience that membership of the SGA enabled local artists to display their work publicly for several weeks at a very modest cost to themselves.

Some possible painting days were discussed, including one to be held in conjunction with the Water Meadows Trust.

Following a break for refreshments, sculptor Martin Wright gave a most interesting illustrated talk entitled The Making of a Bronze Sculpture: Isis.

This took his audience through a long sequence of procedures to the final production of a graceful nude reclining figure cast in bronze. It began with the selection of the model’s pose and the taking of photographs and measurements.

Next the sculptor produced an armature – a rough approximation of the finished work.

The sculpture was then created in clay, and a mould built round it by stages. Melted wax was poured into the mould, then a second mould built around the hardened wax made of a ceramic mixture.

The wax was then ‘lost’ and molten metal poured into the prepared mould at Talos Art Foundry in Hampshire.

Finally, ‘chasing’ and ‘patination’ gave the completed sculpture its seductive finish.