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THE FORMER US president has some time on his hands these days and has decided to dapple in a bit of painting.
However, he is not just doing landscapes, no, he has decided to paint some of the people he met while on the job, like Berlusconi, Blair and Putin.
The 67-year-old is taking his work very seriously and unveiled an exhibition of his work on Friday at his presidential library in Dallas.
The exhibition is entitled: “The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy.”
What do you think, should he give up the day job just yet? Take a look at some of his other works of art:
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Where’s the one of Cowen sittin on the jacks clutching the bog-roll..?
That’s nothing….. U shud see Berties portfolio of potato prints
People are gonna give him shit for his paintings because it’s George W.
Personally, I quite like them.
Agreed, i think they’re very good.
I think he has medium talent as a painter.
In fairness he’s doing it as a hobby, clearly a bit of talent there. Credit where it’s due, even for a war monger.
Well done George. Saw this last night. Interesting paintings of dogs and self portraits in the shower and in the bath, I shi t you not.
Amazing what painting by numbers can achieve… even with the simplest of minds!
I miss him,hilarious stuff usually. And his painting aren’t that bad.
Amazing what ya can do with a set of crayons!!
‘Fool me once………shame on, shame on………… you……..………..ye fool me yeh can’t get fooled again’
You could be arrestified for a comment like that.
You’re right too many OB/ GYN’s out there….
I know that human beings and fish can coexist peacefully..
I don’t blame the Iraqis for being angry about being occupied, I wouldn’t be happy if I was occupied.
“The French don’t have a word for ‘entrepreneur’”
The one of Enda must be on loan to the Tate…
I notice he didn’t show the painting of himself and Osama,with the twin towers in the background.
Well well…not too shabby. If he’d spent more time painting instead if war mongering he could actually have been really good
He probably calls them water boards
You want to be arrestified aswell?
The mans a complete moron. He should be painting in a prison cell for all the killing of innocent civilians he is responsible for. He is most vile man. A puppet if the US military and religious right. Brainless
From The Guardian US edition review of his exhibition “One imagines that the excitement over Bush’s paintings forms part of a desperate national hunger for expiation from the unforgivable crime of his presidency, as if translating Bush into a sweet retiree at his easel will erase the illegal war, the obscene economic policy, the environmental spoliation, the executive power grab, the drowning of New Orleans.”
Spot on there
Leo Varadkar is pretty good with Glitter and finger painting I hear
He certainly has some talent. Let those who knock him post some of their paintings.
Well said.
In all fairness, he is a talented artist. I’m also going to say something controversial. If Ireland had someone like him in power, we wouldn’t see half the lowlifes walking our streets and causing all sorts of trouble. They would fear the death penalty or life imprisonment. Life sentences in Ireland are usually 10 years. Most Judges let criminals off with a suspended sentence
Last time I checked, the US has a far worse crime problem than Ireland.
Incidentally, the state that experiences the most violent crime according to the FBI, Tennessee, has a death penalty.
In fact, 7 of the top 10 most violent states (Tennessee, Nevada, South Carolina, Delaware, Louisiana, Florida, and Oklahoma) all enforce a death penalty. 2 of the top 10 states (New Mexico and Maryland) only abolished capital punishment in the last two years. Alaska is the only exception.
If the death penalty is supposed to act as a deterrent, it’s doing a p1ss poor job.
Have you even been to the US? Have you seen Detroit? New Orleans? Any of the south / central states outside of the big cities? The level of poverty in the states is shocking and the crime rate is too and a lot of it can be traced back to disastrous domestic policy decisions from republican governments in the 80′s and 90′s and again with Bush. I agree with you that our sentencing is a joke, but be careful what you wish for. It’s a nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there. Certainly wouldn’t want to be poor there.
Where’s Bertie in the yellow suit?
Adolph Hitler, John Wayne Gacy and Charles Manson also had a passion for art.
I was wondering when someone was going to make that connection.. This being the journal and all.. Thanks for not disappointing!
Senior Infants style
Putin looks like the Lone Ranger after a hard days ride with his mask off
Former U.S. President George W. Bush has said a portrait he painted of Russian leader Vladimir Putin was inspired by Putin’s reaction to Bush’s dog Barney.
Bush, who has taken up painting since leaving the White House, told NBC’s Today show Friday that when Putin saw the American president’s Scottish terrier — “our dear dog Barney, who had a special place in my heart — he “dissed” him, adding “You call it a dog?’”
A year later, “I go to visit Vladimir at his dacha outside of Moscow and he says, ‘Would you like to meet my dog?’” Bush said. “Out bounds this huge hound, obviously much bigger than a Scottish terrier, and Putin looks at me and says, ‘Bigger, stronger and faster than Barney.’”
“I took it in. I didn’t react. I just said, ‘Wow. Anybody who thinks ‘my dog is bigger than your dog’ is an interesting character.’ And that painting kind of reflects that,” Bush said.
That’s gas.
Says so very much and yet so very little . Good knowledge.
Does he have a “day job” these days?. At least colouring in with crayons and markers will help pass the time.
Apart from the fact that the portrait bears no resemblance to the alleged subject, the very mention of GWB offends me. May he never know rest for the evil he has done.
We also now know what he was doing while Cheney ran the country
I want to see George Bush draw the face of every dead Iraqi civilian from his oil-grab war.
‘Gonna smoke ‘em outta them caves ‘
Who was it that said he kept a picture of his mother in law over the fire place to keep the kids away from the fire
This man has been painting for long enough now………
……..White washing all his atrocities that is …..
What an EVIL man and instrument of the Devil ….9/11 and Iraq least we forget.
I think it compares very favourably to some contemporary portrait artists.
The great Hockney’s portraits exhibition circa 10 years ago was an embarrassing mess.
I’d love to see a portrait of Bush, done by Putin.
Far funnier I’d say ;)
I am an artist and if I painted like that I would be laughed at! Someone has to tell him that he should keep doing it as a hobby. It takes years if training and practice and he needs to keep practicing!
Deborah, if you were a true Artist, you would criticise someone’s work like this.
*wouldn’t
A piss artist
What I live about the portrait of Putin is that george has rally managed to capture the empathy and compassion in Vlads eyes. . Art is a beautiful thing
Wow what crap!
he should be locked up for the war crimes he commited and enabled!!
I could do better.
Yeah but why did you go and chop your knob off?
A talented painter, is old George W!
We’ve clearly misunderestimated the man from Texas!
Forgot the little moustache just under the nose!
His Putin actually looks like the head sculpture from Art Attack
Actually looks like the writer Robert Harris – scarily like him. Wrote Fatherland & Archangel books that are probably putinesque wet dreams.
A war criminal with the death of a least one million civilians on his bloodstained hands
The one of Faisal is particularly good
I’m overcome with Shock and Awe
Guided by the hand of God…His painting is more adept than his politics- but only just. Looking at them I’d say he could easily lead a new genre of painting ( dubbed ) “depresstionism”.
Watch out Banksy!
Very good paintings. Shame he didn’t develop this talent at a younger age.
Those portraits are so poor, they look like they were painted by George Wa nker Bush!
I’m sure that’s Terry Wogan in the last group of paintings. Canadian flag beside him for some reason.
Just out from Wackyleaks…………. George dubya was restoration man on Ecce Homo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ecce_Homo_(El%C3%ADas_Garc%C3%ADa_Mart%C3%ADnez).jpg
Hmmm. Look like painting-by-numbers ones to me …
Funny what he said to his art tutor:
“There’s a Rembrandt trapped in this body. Your job is to find it.”
http://nypost.com/2013/11/20/george-w-bush-shows-off-paintings-gets-laughs-on-tonight-show/
Clinton also has a flair for painting world leaders — their wives, anyway. Lol…. http://dandygoat.com/bill-clinton-unveils-beautiful-wives-portraits
If our fearless Enda was given the air time G.B. got G.B’s statements would pale in comparison. He was asked not to speak at party meetings to drum up F.G. support.
They’re not too bad
Pains me to say it but the portraits are good in terms of looking like the person, suppose he has to be some way decent at something even if it is drawing/painting like an eight year old child
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