Former US president George W Bush is hoping world leaders will warm to the portraits he's painted of them, which go on exhibition in Texas this weekend.
The two dozen canvases are a key part of The Art of Leadership: A President's Personal Diplomacy, which explores the relationships Bush forged with world leaders during his presidency.
"I think their reaction is going to be, 'Whoa, George Bush is a painter'," quipped Bush in an interview with his journalist daughter Jenna Bush Hager to air on NBC television's Today program on Friday.
He added: "I hope they take it in the spirit in which these were painted, and that was a spirit of friendship, and that I admired them as leaders and was willing to give it a shot in terms of getting people to see how I felt about them."
None of the portraits have been seen publicly before - or, for that matter, by the yet-to-be-identified subjects themselves.
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"I'm sure when they heard that I was painting them... they're going to say, 'Whoa, I look forward to seeing a stick figure he painted of me'," said Bush, 67, who took up painting after leaving the White House in January 2009.
The George W Bush Presidential Library and Museum, on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said the exhibition would run through June 3.
