Bush Paints

Former President George W. Bush is glad his paintings are confounding his critics.

“People are surprised,” he told the Dallas Morning News about the recently disclosed paintings in a rare interview published Sunday night. “Of course, some people are surprised I can even read.”

Bush, who said he takes “great delight in bursting stereotypes,” started painting about a year ago. When a friend of his wife’s told him he had some talent, Bush was initially skeptical, but came around to the hobby after reading “Painting as a Pastime,” written by Bush hero Winston Churchill. Bush now takes lessons once a week and mostly paints pets, landscapes and still lifes.

(PHOTOS: George W. Bush)

“I don’t know,” he told the paper when asked why he spends so much time painting and engaging in other frustrating activities like golf and mountain biking. “You’ll have to call all the people who’ve written these books about me, who claim they know me, the psycho-babblers.”

The interview comes at the start of two weeks of publicity for Bush. The George W. Bush Presidential Center, which includes a think tank bearing the name of the 43rd president and his presidential library, will open on April 25 on the Southern Methodist University campus. The four other living presidents will travel to Dallas to attend the opening.

“I’m comfortable with what I did,” he told the Morning News, reflecting on his legacy. “I’m comfortable with who I am.”

In the interview, Bush eagerly defended his own record — the Medicare drug expansion, the deficit, the two tax cuts, the Wall Street bailout, the state of the economy he left President Barack Obama, the war in Iraq, and his brand of “compassionate conservatism,” which has been mocked by more fiscally focused Republicans in the years since he left office.

“The best way for people to understand what I meant by ‘compassionate conservative’ is to look at the programs we implemented and look at the results,” he said.

Bush, who has done little campaigning for GOP candidates and skipped the party’s convention in 2012, remains an unpopular figure. A February Gallup poll found 45 percent of Americans believe his presidency was below average or poor, a score exceeded only by Richard Nixon among recent presidents.     Read more: