Some of Leonardo da Vinci’s original drawings are in Southampton! And all over the UK… The idea is rather interesting: instead of a touring exhibition of the same drawings, all cities taking part concurrently get a different set of drawings. If the visitors want to see all of them, then they are the ones who need to go on a tour…
I really enjoyed the Southampton exhibition. Then again, anything involving any original work by my greatest influence (and my hero since I visited the French chateau of Le Clos Luce during a school trip when I was little), and I start bouncing up and down incontrollably…
The exhibition shows a couple of short films: one about Leonardo’s life and one about the materials he used. I found the latter very interesting and it left me longing for a workshop so I could play with the real things.
The drawing are exhibited in a single room, with low level lights and people walking around with magnifying glasses.
Leonardo’s drawings are exquisite and if one of these exhibitions is near you, I would definitely recommend you go. At the end of the tour all the drawings will come together and be exhibited in London.
I made a short video of my visit, in which I also demonstrate the use of chalk, oak gall ink, home-made watercolours (with gum Arabic and powdered pigments). You can see it here:
Or you can visit my YouTUbe channel to see this video and many more, by clicking here.
If you visited the Southampton exhibition or another one on the map above, leave a comment and let us know what you thought!
Happy field trip!
Sandrine Maugy 
I have been to see it and found it fascinating. He was left handed and wrote from right to left, even turned the letters round. He did a map of an area in Italy. I am sure I saw a horse and face in the map but that could have been my imagination
LikeLike
Being left handed myself, I can see the logic in his writing like this…
LikeLike
So can I. I am ambidextrous. When I broke my right arm, I did 3 paintings with my left hand.
LikeLike