Although Canadian wildlife artist Angus Burns always had a flare for drawing, even making his own Christmas cards as a child, it was many years later when a tree, a few cartons of cigarettes, and a trip to Vancouver by a friend conspired to make him realize his full artistic potential.
Working as a cook in a lumber camp after a felled tree put him on the disabled list, a fellow logger who had seen some of his personal sketches, handed him a couple of slabs of wood. He asked Angus if he could paint some ducks on the wood. In return he was to receive a couple of cartons of cigarettes. It seemed like a good way to pass the time and selling the extra cigarettes in camp could put a bit of change in his pocket. Over two months he produced 30 pieces and it seemed like a good arrangement. That is until a friend returned from a weekend in Vancouver where he had seen some of Angus’s paintings for sale. Angus was stunned to find that his artwork was selling for three to four hundred dollars each. Well, needless to say the money he was making off of the cigarettes began to look a little less attractive. That was in 1978 and he’s never looked back.
Today his talent blends with those of fellow wildlife artist Sarah Spencer to form White Wolf & Friends. Call it fate or call it destiny, but events that spanned several years propelled Sarah Spencer from a casual admirer of Angus’s work, to becoming his business manager, to becoming a fulltime artist. Becoming a fulltime artist has given Sarah the ability to combine her love of art and animals with the advantage of working from home, giving her ample time for her two young boys.
