From Green Pencils to Grand Adventures

There is a special kind of magic that happens when you stop overthinking and just let the brush move. For Helen Stork, the artist behind Pure Imagination Works, that magic started at a small side table in a grandma’s maisonette with a single green pencil and a blank sheet of paper.

 Today, that same spirit of wonder fuels a creative practice that is as free-spirited as it is playful. We sat down with her to talk about the journey from sketching Beano characters to self-publishing children’s books, and what it’s really like to have her work reviewed by her two biggest (and most honest) critics: her sons. Helen’s work is bursting with colour, character and heart. The kind of art that makes you pause, smile, and look a little closer.

Helen - The Creative Heart

Helen is the creative heart behind Pure Imagination Works. She lives in Leeds with her husband Alex and two wonderful boys. After being made redundant from her office job, she took it as the unexpected push she needed to return to what truly matters, her art.

 Now happier than ever, Helen spends her days creating cards, prints and books, delivering inspiring school workshops, collaborating with local councils, and even doing live wedding illustration. Helen also treasures the extra time with her boys, who get to grow up watching their mum wholeheartedly pursue her dream.

“I am an artist who is evolving and learning every day, about myself and the industry I am in,” Helen says.

Her style? Free-spirited, playful and unapologetically colourful. There’s a sense of freedom running through her pieces, a lightness that feels both joyful and deeply considered at the same time.

Where It All Began

Helen has drawn for as long as she can remember. One of her earliest memories is sitting in her Grandma’s small maisonette, a green pencil in hand, poised over a crisp sheet of white paper. That quiet, simple moment sparked something that never left.

Creativity runs in the family. Her dad’s imaginative mind was a constant inspiration, but it was her Uncle that truly caught her attention when it came to illustration. “It was my Uncle drawing an Indian elephant that first captured my imagination. The way he created expression in the elephants face and his detail of the rug covering the elephant's back was amazing”

From there came years of recreating characters from The Dandy and The Beano, and inventing her own cartoons. Over time, the loose, expressive magic of Quentin Blake and Tony Ross left their mark too, artists known for capturing movement, humour and emotion with seemingly effortless lines.

Inspired by Freedom

Right now, Helen is embracing abstract and expressive art. She’s drawn to the freedom it offers, the way a piece can reveal something different depending on your mood. Her work invites you to bring your own feelings to the page. There’s no single interpretation. No fixed rules. That philosophy carries into her process, too.

She works predominantly by hand, favouring traditional methods. She loves the accidental marks that happen when pencil meets paper or brush meets paint, those unexpected strokes that often become the soul of the piece.

“If I can create without using technology, I love it,” she says. That said, she uses tools like Photoshop to refine or prepare pieces for larger formats, and InDesign to craft her self-published children’s books, a step that has opened up a whole new creative world for her.

A Desk, A Mug, and a Cat Called Suki

On Helen’s desk you’ll always find a comforting mug of hot water and very often, her cat Suki attempting to position herself directly in the middle of whatever is happening.

It’s in this every day, slightly chaotic, beautifully human space that her ideas come to life.

Unlocking Imaginations

While creating art is deeply personal, one of Helen’s greatest joys is sharing it with others. She loves delivering workshops in schools, watching children break through creative barriers and realise there are no rules in art. That they can be bold. That they can be themselves.

“Seeing a child express themselves on paper, knowing they’re free to create without limits, that’s everything.”

Seeing Her Work Out in the World

Having her creations in shops is both thrilling and humbling. It’s exciting to see the ideas that once whirled around in her mind finally living out in the world, yet it also brings a sense of vulnerability.

“It feels exposing and confidence-building all at once,” she admits.

And now, as she joins Badger & Burrow as one of our newest stockists, we’re proud to help share her work with even more people.

What She Hopes You Feel

When you pick up one of Helen’s pieces, she hopes you feel joy. Inspiration. A sense of connection. That spark of imagination that reminds you creativity belongs to everyone.

What’s Next for Pure Imagination Works?

Big things.
Her next book, Molly’s Adventures Down Under, is now fully illustrated, with over 80 illustrations and currently in the editing stage. After 20 years of planning, Helen is preparing to navigate the literary agent world in the hope of publishing traditionally.

She made a promise to a class during a story reading workshop: that the next time she sees them, she’ll be reading from a first edition of Molly’s Adventures Down Under. She’s determined to keep that promise.

Watch this space……

We’re so excited to welcome Helen and Pure Imagination Works to Badger & Burrow. Her work is a celebration of freedom, imagination and heartfelt creativity and we can’t wait for you to experience it for yourself.

Shop the Pure Imagination Works Collection 

For more information on school workshops or to book live wedding illustrations, drop Helen an email at info@pureimaginationworks.co.uk. She would love to hear from you!