Laura Bush Reveals New Details About President George W. Bush's Painting Hobby
“It's been a lot of fun for him, very engaging," she said.
— -- Former first lady Laura Bush provided new details about former President George W. Bush’s much-discussed painting hobby during an interview with ABC News, saying that the couple has had an artist’s studio constructed at their ranch in Texas and that her husband’s latest project is a “big series of prickly pear cactus.”
“It's been a lot of fun for him, very engaging, I think, painting is," she said during an interview conducted last week. "And now that we have the new studio at the ranch, we can -- he can paint there more.”
The topic came up as Laura Bush and ABC News' Jonathan Karl took a brief tour of the newly renovated White House Visitor's Center on Pennsylvania Avenue, just down the street from the White House. The two had just viewed a photo on display of her preparing for the first White House State Dinner in September 2001 with then-Mexican President Vicente Fox.
Bush said her husband, who “has teachers,” might give one of his cactus paintings to Karen Hughes, who served in the Bush administration, for her house in Santa Fe.
A self-portrait done by the former president leaked online following the hacking of a relative’s email account in 2013. Later that year, Bush told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that he loved to paint and that it changed his life in an “unbelievably positive way.”
The former first lady, sitting down with Karl, discussed her post-White House life, said the “chef” was the thing she missed most about living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and recalled fond memories of walks abound Washington’s tidal basin, a picturesque spot resplendent with cherry blossoms this time of year.
She enjoyed “driving in now and seeing the cherry blossoms,” she said. "And when we lived here, when we lived in the White House, I had a friend and we'd walk real early in the morning around the tidal basin under the cherry blossoms before any other walkers were out.
“I miss that," she added. "Washington is a beautiful city. It's like a big national monument. I miss the city of Washington, for sure.”