SOUTH SURREY - Pancreatic cancer has claimed the life of noted artist Robert Genn, whose home studio in the Crescent Beach area was his creative playground.
He had celebrated his 78th birthday just two weeks prior to his death, which occured on the morning of Tuesday, May 27, at home, surrounded by family.
Genn was a prolific painter known for landscapes based on his travels around the world. He wrote three books and also snapped more than 165,000 photographs as reference material for his many oils, acrylics, drawings, lithos, serigraphs and other works.
Last October, soon after his doctor told him about the cancer, Genn had begun the "sad but fun" process of sorting through a lifetime of his work, with the help of his daughter Sara, also an artist.
On Thursday, Sara made public the news of her father's death via The Painter's Keys website Robert had used for his popular Twice-Weekly Letters, at Painterskeys.com.
Over the past several months, Sara helped her father divide his work into "destroy," "sign" and "keep" categories.
In a website post last October, Robert wrote: "Having been through similar situations with several artists who happened to be dear friends, one of my concerns is that substandard Robert Genn paintings don't get out onto the market.... For years I've been telling artists to do it now, not later. Today we find ourselves doing it now."
Sara will continue writing for The Painter's Keys website, which will also include previous posts written by her father.