Advice from George Bush: ‘Never paint your wife or your mother’

WASHINGTON — George W. Bush doesn’t readily offer political opinions, but when it comes to portraits, he has some broad-brush advice:

“Never paint your wife or your mother.”

Bush’s new book about his father includes a portrait he painted of his dad, the 41st president.

Bush tells CNN’s “State of the Union” that “I think it’s nice,” but his tough-to-please mother “kind of wasn’t” happy with it.

The 43rd president also painted his wife, Laura. The verdict?

She didn’t like it and neither did one of their daughters, “so I just scrapped it.”

Well, maybe not.

“I may have saved it although they probably think I destroyed it.”

Bush has said that an essay by Winston Churchill on painting inspired him to take lessons after leaving office.

ASSOCIATED PRESS