My typical Friday night normally consists of finishing work far too late and distractedly browsing the lives of friends and family through Facebook and Twitter, while paying little attention to whatever’s on the TV. I guess you could say I’m not a man of high culture. You might also say I’m not atypical.

However, Friday the 30th March was quite different. I attended the preview of “Ten Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci”, because Noisy Little Monkey (the company I founded, who built and maintain this site) had a spare ticket.

It was a bit of a risk to send me, someone who’s not a great art buff (I also have the attention span of a 7 year old) but I have to say I was happily surprised at what a cool exhibition it was.

There are far better people than I to tell you about the history of da Vinci and what drove him to his craft, but what struck me about these drawings is what a polymath the artist must have been. It wasn’t just portraits of faces forgotten but drawings of the inside of the human body, plans of how to drain a marsh, terrifying weapons of war (plus a depiction of the end of the world).

The detail in every piece of work is absolutely astonishing. In this day and age of technology and photo quality printers, we’re used to seeing fine detail but this guy was churning out remarkably perfect drawings (basically just using a sharpened stick) onto paper made of old clothes. What’s more, they have lasted in almost perfect condition for 500 or so years!

It’s FREE ENTRY, there is information on the walls about the artist and his paintings and there are great information sheets for kids.
Even if you know nothing of art or history, like me, you should go. Actually, scratch that. It’s people like us who MUST go, before Her Majesty takes them home again in June.

For more information about the exhibition, click here.