Freddie Timms lived as a child on Bow River and Lissadell Stations, later working as a stockman and fencer on several stations throughout the East Kimberley. He knew Rover Thomas when they both worked at Bow River and Texas Downs, and Timms danced and helped paint boards for early performances of Thomas's Gurirr-Gurirr.

He first began painting in the mid-1980s while living at Frog Hollow, south of Turkey Creek. Timms asked for canvases from Joel Smoker of Waringarri Arts who was supplying canvases to Jack Britten, Rover Thomas, Hector Jandany and his father-in-law, George Mung-Mung. He paints in a style that conforms to the East Kimberley archetype, originated by Rover Thomas, but is recognizably his own with discrete areas of color outlined in double rows of white dots.

He is noted for his careful aerial landscapes and mapping that has a feeling of familiarity that can only stem from someone who has an indisputable knowledge of this land. Timms was pivotal in the establishment of Jirrawun Aboriginal Art Corporation in 1998 and, with the help of Tony Oliver, Jirrawun began to market the work of a wide group of Kimberley artists including Paddy Bedford, Hector Jandany, Rusty Peters, Goody Barrett, Phyllis Thomas, and his father's brother Timmy Timms.