George W. Bush Painted Portraits of His Wife and Daughters. It Didn’t Go So Well.

George W. Bush first picked up a paint brush in 2012 and has since received professional instruction, filling thousands of canvases — studies of sliced cake, the family pets, the flora on his Texas ranch and more.

His new book, Out of Many, One, comprises dozens of his oil portraits of American immigrants promoting compassionate reform and benefiting programs that help immigrants; and his 2017 art book, Portraits of Courage, celebrated wounded veterans in light of his experience as a president who launched two wars.

But for all that practice, Bush admits to little confidence when painting women ... and traces that back to his early attempt to depict his wife, Laura.

"The Laura portrait was a bust. It was destroyed," Bush, 74, says in an interview for the new issue of PEOPLE. Lately, he is focused on "changing the tone" of anti-immigrant rhetoric in recent years and trying to prod lawmakers to fix what he calls a "broken system" for the legal entry of migrants.

The portraits in Out of Many, One celebrate 43 immigrants Bush admires and whose stories underscore the contributions of immigrants to America's society, culture and economy.

But, in Zoom interviews with Bush and his daughter Jenna Bush Hager, the Today with Hoda & Jenna co-host, PEOPLE couldn't resist asking about the former president's more personal art projects.

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C.A. Smith Photography George W. Bush painting

Bush painted Hager, 39, last summer.

"I had a reaction, which was not so great," she admits. "I tend to be critical of myself, but also critical of the way somebody else sees me. So he painted me and it was okay. I just feel like I guess I have to start doing Botox, because he uses so much texture that my forehead looked really wrinkly. I think what is beautiful is that he captures the essence of people, and I do look very joyful."

On Wednesday's Today, the former first daughter (who also runs the popular Today book club #ReadWithJenna) shared a photo of the painting with co-host Hoda Kotb, saying, "I don't hate it. But is that what I look like?"

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Courtesy Jenna Bush Hager George W. Bush's portrait of daughter Jenna Bush Hager

Only Hager's twin sister Barbara Bush, cofounder and board chair of the nonprofit Global Health Corps, landed a keeper — "but it took her telling me what was wrong with it, and I corrected it," the former president says.

As for his wife's portrait, the last time PEOPLE heard about it, the painting was intact ... just stashed out of sight.

"I tried to paint her," he told PEOPLE in 2017. "I finished it."

"Kind of. Not really," Mrs. Bush interjected, seated beside her husband in the attic art studio of their Dallas home.

"After I changed it four different times — I don't like this expression or that expression — I finally said, 'I'm through,' " her husband replied.

So where is that one hanging?

Nathan Congleton/NBC From left: Laura Bush, George W. Bush and Jenna Bush Hager

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"It's not," said President Bush.

"It's in the closet," Mrs. Bush, 74, said at the time.

The former first lady did add that she genuinely likes many of her husband's artworks: "I have lots of favorites, some that I've hung downstairs. Water lilies. And of course I love the portraits of our pets."

But, as with her own portrait (before it was consigned to the trash heap), she said back then with a smile, "I'm not afraid to tell him if I think he should do something else."