Greet Helsen was born in 1962 in Hoogstraten, Belgium. Following her graduation in 1984 from her art studies with Italian painter B. Assenza, she continued her independent educational and artistic works.

In 1986 Helsen founded her own art school in Dortmund, Germany which she continued to direct for the next twelve years. Following a short break from teaching while focusing on her own creative growth, she held classes until 2012 at the Assenza Visual Art School Basel, located in Münchenstein, Switzerland. She then took over the management of the NetzWerk Malerei art school also in Münchenstein, Switzerland. Greet Helsen currently works and lives near Basel, Switzerland.

In her abstract works she uses mainly acrylic, but utilizes the medium like watercolor, bringing a lightness into her paintings. The shimmering colors are transparent and are accentuated by ink lines and reflecting and highlighting large swathes of color. This process gives the paintings unmistakable lightness and softness with harmonious combinations of bright color blocks and lines set against white backgrounds.