[6] His painting A New Journey appeared on the First Minister's Christmas Card in 2009 and featured Burns's niece holding a saltire.

[8] In April 2015, on the occasion of Scotland Week, he opened the exhibition A Brush with Inspiration in New York, featuring 16 paintings of notable Scots, from Ewan McGregor to Nicola Sturgeon.

[2] After the high-profile SoHo gallery, he decided to show his works to the Scots in a shopping center in Easterhouse, which he saw as "a metaphor ... for areas of social deprivation and the thought that there shouldn’t be a postcode lottery when it comes to access to the arts.

[14] His portrait of Alex Salmond raised 50,000 pounds for CLIC Sargent, a charity supporting children and young people with cancer and their families.

[16] Burns launched a special collection of prints to raise money for Mary's Meals, a charity setting up school feeding projects in some of the world's poorest communities.