It is this same sense of isolation and vulnerability that you feel when confronted with Helen’s vast and turbulent work. Her earlier drawings, inspired by tsunamis and post-apocalyptic disaster movies, denote powerful natural forces that inspire feelings not only of awe and terror, but a sense of perspective that is a sharp shock to the ego.

In The Wake / Screw

Her most recent works are collected together under the title ‘In the Wake’ and whilst they retain the forcefulness of her earlier work, it feels more like a force that is working with you, rather than against you.  There are 14 drawings, 13 smaller ones and one large piece, which are inspired by views from a boat trip traveling between Mediterranean islands. For Helen, the journey is very important in these works, be it a physical or emotional one. Individual titles such as ‘Lie to’ and ‘Bear Up’, blur the line between friendly counsel and literal, nautical termination, and this shift in subject matter also means that you are seeing more of man’s effect on nature as the movement of the boat creates the disturbances in the water.  Nevertheless, the full force of the series as a whole, and the vitality of Helen’s style, still serves to put the viewer in their place.

Work in progress 2012

In The Wake / Listing

When describing her drawing process Helen says, ‘For me, drawing is a really physical outlet, it’s haptic. I put the tracing paper up on a board in my studio and then I use my hands to apply the black pigment. I get a big tray and I put my hands in it.’ She savours this last sentence before continuing. ‘As you start to put the pigment on you leave hand marks, and darker and lighter tones, and then things begin to appear out of the process. I can see where there’s a dip in the wave or where there’s a hollow where the sea’s spraying over and I’ll add more depth, or take it away. I use rubbers and wire wool and different materials to lift the pigment.’ The rhythmical, dynamic element that this method adds to Helen’s work is palpable. With this in mind I asked her what role music plays in her creative process,  ‘Music is incredibly important to me; I always listen to music in the studio.  It’s a huge influence, both the narrative in music and the physical way different songs make me work, depending on how they affect my mood.’ When I ask her what kind of things she listens to she says, ‘The Smiths’ (of course!).

Beyond Distress

The studio that Helen is currently based in is in the Motorcycle Showrooms on Stokes Croft. I wonder what impact that has on the way she produces work ‘Well, it started as just a studio in a space that’s being run by a group of young artists that are trying to turn it into an art centre, but it is slightly like a co op because we all muck in. The building influences my drawing because it’s an almost derelict building and sometimes the roof leaks really badly and in winter it’s absolutely freezing so that limits the work that you can do, but it also allows me to make a mess. That has really let me be free, I think if I was somewhere that was really tidy and neat, that would be very restrictive.’

Another thing that freed Helen up creatively was the time she spent on the University of the West of England’s ‘Drawing and Applied Art’ BA course. ‘It’s a fantastic course! It’s really focused on looking at drawing and processes of drawing in the widest sense. You’re encouraged to experiment all the time, and with every project you can go away and produce something really diverse. It’s the reason I developed different processes, because it makes you try new things like using a sandblaster on paper, for example. The materials, the resources there and the teaching, altogether is really fantastic.’

Work in progress 2012

It is at this point at the discussion that I comment on the necklace that Helen is wearing. It’s a tiny figurine of a swimmer from a Hornby rail set. The swimmer is mid-crawl and encased in a translucent aqua-blue resin and the whole thing is attached to a silver chain. ‘I always think that this is like a metaphor in itself, you know? Trapped and constantly swimming. I feel my work’s like that sort of always on a journey always on this sea, never actually getting to the end of it. ‘ That said, the one thing that really comes across when you meet Helen, both in person and through her art, is the pure joy that she gets from making work. She says herself, her tone both excited and conspiratorial, ‘I mean just imagine going into the studio everyday and getting really dirty. Then wiping your dirty hands on some really white, pure paper, and then turning all that dirt and chaos into something really beautiful. For a while it looks like you’ve completely messed up, and then you make it better again.’

Helen in her studio

Helen’s work ‘In the Wake’ is currently in the ‘Still Chaos’ exhibition at Antlers’ current home on 6 Philadelphia Street, Quakers Friars, Cabot Circus, BS1 3BZ. 2^nd May-27^th May. 11pm-6pm.

Interview by Celia Archer.

Photographs courtesy Helen Jones. 

Her other works are available at http://www.antlersgallery.com/artist/helen-jones

The necklace can be found at http://superpeople.org/jewellery.php

Max in the studio

Would you like to talk a bit about your scroll making? How did it come about?

Originally I was interested in making a visual travelogue to document a trip across the U.S. I enjoyed this way of working, and for a few years it became the main focus of my practice. I built a portable device that held the scrolls of paper and spooled them over a solid surface that I could draw on.

The idea to make the scrolls came about from my dissatisfaction with the process of keeping a sketchbook. I found that my best work was often made in my sketchbooks, perhaps because it was uninhibited and there was no pressure to create a ‘finished’ art work. I wanted to preserve the spirit of the sketchbook but at the same time create something more ambitious. I was also interested in the narrative possibilities of a continuous drawing, exploring how the individual sections linked and flowed together both graphically and thematically.

Scroll Machine

Scroll (detail)

A lot of your work focuses on the imagined or half remembered landscape, how does this then relate to the journal-like chronicling in your scrolls?

I didn’t impose any rules or objectives when making these works. I talked earlier about capturing the ‘spirit of the sketchbook,’ so I worked quite naturally, drawing only what I was compelled to at any particular moment. That could be either directly from observation, from memory or simply mark making and doodling. I am very interested in the idea that drawing is thinking and that by looking at someone’s drawing, you find out who they are and what concerns them. The scroll drawings are important to me personally because the memories of the trip are deeply embedded into the marks I made in a way that photography or a written diary could not achieve. 

Max in the studio

Detail shot of works in progress on studio wall

On to your wall hangings, one of your works is entitled ‘Traümlandschaft’, which I understand is loosely translated German for dream-scape. What is the significance of this idea or place to you and your work?

Well, I lived in Berlin for a while and besides making more scrolls and becoming proficient at table tennis, I made a pretty poor attempt at learning German. The verb Traümen means ‘to dream’ and I thought it was a wonderful sounding word. So, it was a nod to my time in Berlin – and dream-scape sounds a bit naff in English!

A sense of place is what tends to remain for me after dreaming. When the shifting emotions and narratives fade from memory, I’m often left with a strong sense of landscape, warped and reconfigured from actual memory. I find myself returning to these familiar coastlines, coves, bays and headlands; a kind of island microcosm where urban and rural spaces coexist and intermingle. San Francisco replaces Brighton and sits incongruous yet seamlessly nestled into the Sussex coastline, or the central line through a metropolis alights in a breezy Cornish cove. Sorry, other people’s dreams are boring, but these are the memories and imaginings that my mind is concerned with, so it seems totally natural to try and re-externalise this imagery through my work.

Traumlandschaft - Ink on Paper

Inner Flux - Ink on Paper

Trance Fragment - Ink on Paper

Residual Glimpse - Ink on Paper

Are the images distinctly separate or are they all part of a wider narrative?

I think the themes my work tries to deal with are separate yet linked. My interest in landscape focuses on the hinterlands between rural and urban spaces – allotments and industrial estates, for example – and coastlines where land and sea meet. For me this is analogous to metaphysical ideas concerning the space between the external and internal realms in which our consciousnesses seem to exist.

Storm - Etching

Cliff - Etching

What is the relationship between your medium and your work? How do you feel your process of mark making relates to the subjects of your pictures?
I work in ink because I like the strong impact of the line. I don’t work with pencil first so I have to live with mistakes, although I don’t really see them as mistakes. I mentioned the idea earlier that drawing is thinking. If you view the images in that context, as visual transcriptions of the process of thought, then to hide or erase tentative or preliminary marks would be against the spirit in which the image was made.
I have recently discovered the etching process, which I am very excited about. I’m interested in the possibilities of enriching linear work with tonal qualities and look forward to exploring this process further.

Max Naylor - In the studio

Max is currently studying for a postgraduate course at the Prince’s Drawing School in London. He recently contributed work to the latest Antlers Exhibition ‘Other Nature’.

To see more of Max’s work, check out his Antlers Artist page here http://www.antlersgallery.com/artist/max-naylor

Photography by Gary Morrisroe:-  http://www.garymorrisroephotography.co.uk/

Amy in her studio

What is it about these particular animals that draws you to them?

I grew up in Wiltshire and from a young age was encouraged in my interest in nature and art. I identify most with the flora and fauna that I encountered on a daily basis. I have a particular fondness for deer. The chalk downs and woods of home are full of roe and fallow deer, but this never stops that exhilarating feeling of glimpsing one, it will always be a special experience.

Ribbons also feature heavily in my work. The west-country is a place seeped in local folklore and traditions. It is quite common to pass a hawthorn bush and find a coloured ribbon tied to it. These are known colloquially as clouties or wish-ribbons and are a form of sympathetic magic. You simply choose a ribbon or cloth specific to the wish in mind, for example red for love, you then tie the ribbon to a branch making the wish. As the ribbon rots so the wish will gradually come true, or so they say.

‘Butterfly Beat’ (2011), Gouache on paper.

I know you compose pieces that contain flora and fauna that are from similar geographical areas and are found at the same time of year as each other. How important is this kind of accuracy to you and your work?

Again my pastoral upbringing has a part to play in this. One soon gets to know what time of year and month it is by the appearance of certain animals and plants. I consider myself to be a naturalist, be it an amateur one, and I feel it important that there is some scientific truth in all my work. Of course I do take some artistic license for the sake of colour and composition, I must admit that I haven’t come across any real foxes with ribbons tied to their paws or fungi growing from their backs. Certainly the resident vixen of our neighbourhood has an insolent manner and mange.

‘Butterfly Doe’ (2010), Gouache on paper.

There’s an interesting tension in your work between the superficial lightness of the colour schemes and style and the darker, more gruesome subject matter.

My choice of dead animals or anatomy as the focus of my paintings is not intentionally meant to shock or be considered grotesque. I am fascinated by the natural world and try to draw from life as much as possible. Many of the subjects within my works are direct studies from animals that I have found or been given and of course animals are so much easier to draw when they don’t move!

I consider all things in nature to be beautiful, be it the magnificence of a red deer stag or the intricacies of the hue and marbling of its internal organs. The French term for a still life is “nature morte” literally nature dead. A vase of cut flowers is, in itself, a collection of dying life forms, to paint this would not be seen as gruesome, so why should portraying a recently deceased animal be any different? The warm colour palettes and neutral space of my backgrounds are very important in communicating this. I aim to charm the viewer with these subtleties, often adding butterflies and ribbons in the hope that they will consider the subject matter in a different light; to see the beauty that I see.

‘Foxfire’ (2011), Gouache on paper.

Amy cleaning up her vixen in the studio

Your background in illustration is evident in your work, how do you feel about creating these types of pieces in the larger context of the contemporary art scene at the moment? Is this something you think about?

I’m very grateful for my background training in illustration, it has given me an invaluable understanding in draughtsmanship. However, I no longer consider my work to be illustrative. Illustrations are created to do a job of work, for example to accompany the narrative of a story. My paintings are simply an expression of my thoughts, feelings and ideas, my love of nature. Wildlife Art is considered rather low-brow in fine art circles, I definitely aim for my work to move away from the more traditional, representational forms, incorporating more conceptual themes and perhaps changing peoples pre-conceptions along the way.

I don’t really give much thought to the current art scene, obviously I am aware to some degree of what other artists are doing, but mainly I paint for myself and hope that some sort of audience will appreciate it.

Amy's studio

Would you define yourself as a ‘Bristol Artist’, and if so how important is that to your identity as an artist?

Although I currently reside here, I don’t really see myself as a uniquely Bristol artist. I’d say principally I am a British artist. I have a great love of Scotland and I try to get up to Edinburgh every three months or so. I’m learning the art of taxidermy and my tutor lives up there. The vast bleakness of the highlands really excites me, what with its rolling heather moors and inky blue skies and of course the red deer…it always comes back to the deer with me! With every visit I feel that I leave a little bit more of my heart behind.

‘Defeated’ (2012), Gouache on paper.

And finally, how has your relationship with Antlers shaped your work?

Antlers has definitely given me a lot of support and encouragement during the completion of my first year as a painter (again, it must be down to the deer thing). I’m very pleased to be considered one of their core artists and I’m really looking forward to our upcoming exhibitions and my first solo show, some time later this year.

Questions by Celia Archer

Photography by Gabriella May

Amy Timms’ work can be seen exhibited at the next Antlers Show ‘Other Nature’ at Frameless Gallery, 20 Clerkenwell Green, London, 19 – 31 March 2012, 11 – 7pm: http://www.facebook.com/events/261501307257538/

 To see more of Amy’s work or to purchase a piece for yourself go to her page on our website: http://www.antlersgallery.com/artist/amy-timms/

Timelapse video made over 24 days of Amy creating her latest painting ‘Defeated’. Video by Richard Broomhall (www.fracturedether.co.uk) with music by Sheelanagig (sheelanagig.co.uk)