About
Helen Elizabeth Martins was born in Nieu-Bethesda on 23 December 1897. After returning to the village to care for her parents, she gradually transformed the family home with coloured glass, mirrors and sculptural forms. Her work from the 1940s until her death in 1976 became one of South Africa's best-known examples of outsider art.
Town history is an evolving local record. Additional archival sources, community accounts and photographs can help improve this article.