Robert Genn

Robert Douglas Genn (May 15, 1936 – May 27, 2014) was a Canadian artist, who gained recognition for his style, which is in the tradition of Canadian landscape painting. He ran a painters' website, which sends out twice weekly newsletters to 135,000 artists. In 2005, Genn campaigned against the Chinese website arch-world.com, which was selling thousands of high-resolution images of around 2,800 artists' work illegally without permission. He succeeded to an extent.

Life and work

Robert Genn was born in Victoria, British Columbia to an English mother and a Scottish father. He studied at Victoria College and the University of British Columbia, then in 1958 at the Art Centre School in Los Angeles. He painted landscapes throughout British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, New Mexico, and Western Europe.

He identified with and has been compared to the 1920s Canadian Group of Seven. In 1961, he met Lawren Harris who was a neighbour in Point Grey, Vancouver. Genn had problems with painting skies, and Harris's advice was to turn the picture upside-down: "Paint down from the trees to the clouds at the bottom of the picture to get the perspective right." and claims the largest collection of art quotes online with over 5,382 authors quoted. His "Ten Commandments of Art Pricing" on his web site (reprinted on About.com) advise starting cheaply, raising prices slowly, keeping them the same for all purchasers and pricing by size.

In 2005, Genn campaigned against the Chinese website arch-world.com, which was selling thousands of high-resolution images of around 2,800 artists' work illegally without permission. After failing to gain support from the Canadian government or the Chinese embassy in Ottawa,

Genn announced in his Twice-Weekly Letter of 25 October 2013 that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died at his Surrey, British Columbia home at 10:20 am on 27 May 2014 according to his daughter Sara Genn in the Twice-Weekly Letter of 30 May 2014. Several months after his death, four galleries across Canada held honorary openings of his work.

Books

Genn wrote three books. In Praise of Painting (2012) is an illustrated autobiography of his early years. The Dreamway (1987) is an account of a meeting with a spiritual seer. The Painter's Keys (2000) is a handbook for painters based on one of his creativity seminars.

Representation and collections

As of early 2020, 621 works have had auction sales. His work is represented by 12 galleries in Canada. Solo shows include Jenkins Showler Gallery, White Rock; West End Gallery, Edmonton; Hambleton Galleries, Kelowna, The Art Emporium, Vancouver; He was one of the 60 elected senior members (SFCA) of the Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA).

His work is in corporate and public collections, including Air Canada, Bank of Montreal, Canadian General Insurance, Canadian Airlines, Canadian Utilities, The Churchill Corporation, Expo '86, Esso Resources, First City - California II, Highfield Oil & Gas, Molson Brewery Ltd., Montreal Trust, Shell Resources, University of Alberta, Westgate Chevrolet, and the Government of Belgium.