Exhibiting at
Chalke Valley History Festival
June 2026
Nic
Ledger
Scroll
Exhibiting at
Chalke Valley History Festival
June 2026
Oil painter based in Shrewsbury. Since 2020, my work has focused on ancient history, archaeology, and anthropology, spanning from Palaeolithic carvings to early Bronze Age sculpture.
My approach is direct and essential: no decoration, no romanticisation, just the objects and people themselves given space to exist as contemporary presences. I paint across figurative subjects, historical and living, with the same attention to what the subject brings to the canvas.
Chalke Valley History Festival, June 2026 · Broad Chalke, Wiltshire
A series of paintings exploring figurative sculpture from ancient and prehistoric cultures. These objects not as museum artefacts, but as living presences: the earliest faces humanity carved for itself. By isolating them, enlarging them, or placing them back into moments of discovery, I invite them to look back into our world.
01
Palaeolithic fertility figure, circa 28,000 BCE. Limestone. Natural History Museum, Vienna.
View larger ↗
02
The oldest known figurative sculpture, carved from mammoth ivory approximately 40,000 years ago. Found in the Swabian Jura, Germany.
View larger ↗
03
Colossal Olmec head being excavated. Mesoamerica, circa 1200–400 BCE. Basalt stone.
View larger ↗
04
Bronze figure with oxidised copper patina, circa 2600 BCE. Ancient Mesopotamia.
View larger ↗Portraits and figurative work. People painted with the same directness as the historical subjects.
Long Grass
Second Wave
Tim Platt
Polly and May
Strong Girls Club
Discover
For enquiries about work, commissions, or upcoming exhibitions:
ledger.nic@googlemail.comJune 2026, Broad Chalke, Wiltshire
Works from the current series on display.
Contact for further details.