Local artist Heleen Cornet was born in Holland. She obtained a degree in education and a master's degree in fine arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Amersfoort (Holland). After having lived for a couple of years in Norway she moved in 1975 to Bonaire (Neth. Antilles). There she taught fine arts at the high school for five years. After living for one year in Curacao and St. Maarten she moved in 1986 to Saba were she was an art teacher at the Saba Comprehensive School for 3 years. Together with her husband Tom van 't Hof and two children she has made Saba her residence ever since. Heleen opened her own gallery and published several books. Initially only working in watercolor she decided the paper was getting too small which made her switch to oil after studying this medium in Amsterdam with well-known artist Rik Lina.

Heleen can be found regularly on the top of the mountain were she makes drawings of the dramatic rain forest. She camped on Mt. Scenery for more than four weeks. These drawings result in big oils. Heleen just finished a mural in the Sacred Heart Church, a Roman Catholic church in the Bottom Here she combines rainforest scenes with religious symbols. Another source of inspiration for Heleen is the underwater world of Saba. The series of dolphin paintings and other underwater creatures is the result.

Heleen Cornet is standing in the middle of the "eternal gap" between what is seen and what is felt. The canvas is a recording device, reflecting the environment rather than depicting it. What Cornet is achieving here is a healing process, a restoration of disturbed balance -the damage done to the environment by the rapid and poorly planned industrialization- by placing emphasis on the fragility of the beauty itself, the beauty which is in fear of getting lost forever, the beauty of painting.

Tom and Heleen conduct EarthFoot's "Ecolodge on the Island of Saba" program