Angus Shortt was born in 1908 in Belfast, Ireland, and immigrated to Canada in 1911.  From 1926 to 1930 Shortt began a five-year apprenticeship as a wood engraver and illustrator for the graphic design firm Brigdens of Winnipeg, Limited.  In an interview, Shortt describes the wood-engraving method in detail.  He explained that the 9 x 12 blocks of wood were prepared with a white coating to receive a photographic transfer of the image to the wood.  After the artist had touched up the highpoints, hand engraving was begun and a magnifying glass and a lamp were kept close by.  Proofs were taken, and when ready, a final copy was made on high grade white paper ready for use in full-page layouts.  The wood-engraving process was completely phased out in 1931.  Later the artist/illustrator used “scraper board,” -- a white sheet onto which black ink was applied and when dry, the illustration was scraped in with a scalpel, creating the effect of a wood engraving.  Shortt worked doing illustrations of a variety of items -- ranging from jewelry to farm equipment -- for the western edition of the Eaton’s mail-order catalogue.  Between busy periods, however, he was sent to study art at the Winnipeg School of Art with Lionel Lemoine FitzGerald.

Shortt’s experience with graphic design and Illustrative work, solidified his representational skills and informed his naturalistic depictions of birds, wildlife, and landscapes.  He studied birds from both a scientific and artistic perspective, being interested especially in their plumage and anatomy.   He worked in museums in Winnipeg, Ottawa, and New York City, where he studied taxidermy and exhibition techniques at the American Museum of Natural History.  Its counterpart in Canada, the Natural Museum of Canada, hired him to conduct ornithological surveys in west-central Manitoba for two years.  In 1932, Shortt obtained a federal collecting permission to hunt and taxidermy wild birds.  In 1935, he obtained a position at the Museum of Manitoba, where he worked on restoration of a Treherne Plesiosaur skeleton. 

He was able to combine his passions as an ornithologist and artist by working as an illustrator and wildlife artist from 1939 to 1973 at Ducks Unlimited Canada outside Winnipeg at Oak Hammock Marsh.  He depicted the Prairie birds in their natural habitat for handbooks, brochures, posters, and other educational and promotional material.  Continuing in the vein of the British landscape tradition so entrenched in the Prairies from the late nineteenth century on wards, Shortt painted in watercolours early on, and then moved on to oil paintings, because he could do work on a large scale.  It took him about a week to complete one painting, although he did work on more than one at a time.

His paintings were used to illustrate several books, including Sports afield treasury of waterfowl, published in 1957 (previously published in 1953 under the title Sports afield collection of know your ducks and geese), which is still considered the authority on Prairie waterfowl.  My life with birds: the education and successes of a wildlife artist, published in 2003, features Shortt’s life story and many examples of the beautiful artwork he created based on the Prairie birds, wildlife, and landscapes he loved.  His paintings have also been reproduced on stamps and greeting cards.  Over his career, Shortt produced over 4,000 paintings, which can now be found in collections throughout Canada, the United States, Japan, South Africa, Sweden, Ireland, England, and Australia.  As a testament to his long career, a painting hangs on permanent display in Shortt’s honour at Duck’s Unlimited Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre.

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