Sharon Stone Says Health Issues Slowed Her Acting Career So She’s Expressing Herself Through Paint

NEW YORK (AP) — During the pandemic, a friend sent Sharon Stone a paint-by-numbers set to keep her busy, a gesture that has led to a new path of creative expression for the actor.

Known best for roles in films like “Casino” and “Basic Instinct,” Stone has discovered a love of painting and launched a show of her giant canvases at the C. Parker Gallery in Greenwich, Connecticut, this week.

Stone got frustrated staying within the lines and colors in that first paint set and started creating her own abstract paintings using acrylic on canvas.

Over the past several years she has carved out studio space in her home where she works both inside and outside and says she loves it because she always needs to be moving.

The show, titled “Welcome to My Garden” is only her second outing and features 19 of her brightly colored works. Stone, 65 and the mother to three sons, recently spoke with The Associated Press about artistic inspiration, battling health issues and whether she will act again. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: How did you get inspired to be an artist?

STONE: Museums allowed me to come when they were closed so I went to museums all over the world on Mondays. That was unbelievable. I lived all over the world and worked all over the world, both in my life as an actress and my life as a peace activist and human rights activist. So I’ve seen so much extraordinary art that it’s almost like I got this sort of side degree in art and art history, which has just been magnificent. And that has been unbelievably inspiring to me.

AP: This passion for painting started with paint-by-numbers and then went quickly to 6-by-8-foot canvases?

STONE: I love the bigs. It just sends me to paint on a big canvas. If I could get bigger ones… (laughs.) I love painting in the big scale and it’s opened something in me. It’s moved something inside of me. My first show was called ‘Shedding’ because I started realizing I was shedding a lot of oppression. A lot of ‘You have to do it this way. You’re allowed to be creative, but it has to be like this.’

AP: How do you know when a painting is finished?

STONE: That’s the biggest discipline. Because in the beginning, you can’t stop. Because you never feel like, ‘That’s it.’ When this stuff was being wrapped up for this show, I put it all outside so I can see everything, all together. And then I was running around with this pallet. ’Oh! Oh, my gosh! (gestures paint strokes) But then I was like, ‘You got to cool it.’ Because you can destroy everything, and you can just ruin your art if you don’t stop. You can go past a point of no return.