Sharon Stone reveals why she turned her back on Hollywood for art

Actor-turned-painter shared more about her career shift in new ‘Good Morning Britain’ interview

Sharon Stone has given some insight into her decision to trade film sets for art studios, as she continues sharing her painting career with fans.

The Hollywood star was once one of the movie industry’s most bankable femme fatales.

However, recent years have seen the Basic Instinct star forge a career in art rather than films.

During Thursday’s edition (9 May) of Good Morning Britain, Stone explained why she has chosen to branch out into visual art, rather than pursuing a second career that relates more closely to her acting roots.

“If I really just boil it down to the most basic thing, I think that I believe there’s a connection to spirit, and so many of us call it so many different things,” Stone told co-hosts Kate Garraway and Ed Balls.

“Everybody has their own name for the way that they speak to spirit. For me, I feel the closest to that when I do creative things, and the painting is very much an expression of how I feel artistically, and how, through that creativity, the spirit comes through me.”

The Casino star continued by explaining that painting brings her an immense sense of inner peace.

“When I get to be creative, whether it’s on film or on the canvas, I feel very much in my element and very much that all’s right with the world,” Stone explained.

Sharon Stone (Getty Images)

Stone, who began painting regularly during the pandemic, also said that her artwork is often a visual representation of the thoughts and emotions she experiences.

“I feel like my mind is full of these images and stories and thoughts and feelings,” she said on the ITV morning programme.

“They kind of come flooding out on the canvas and I hope they’re as compelling to other people as they are when I make them.”

Sharon Stone on GMB (ITV / screengrab)

Stone has long discussed some of the difficulties she faced while working in Hollywood, including feeling as if the industry abandoned her after she suffered a brain haemorrhage and stroke in 2001.

She has also been candid about instances of inappropriate sexual conduct by executives, as well as being “shocked” her career did not continue to go as well as she’d hoped after the success of her 1995 crime film, Casino.

In December, she told The Independent how she began the process of being a regular painter.

“We were going through Covid and I was not working as an actress,” she said.

“I was shedding a lot of emotional things. It seemed like every painting was about an emotional experience; I was leaving it all on the canvas.”

Now, Stone has had exhibitions all over the world and makes up to $40,000 (£32,000) per artwork sale. Her current exhibition, titled My Eternal Failure, opened in San Francisco last month.