Sharon Stone: ‘Sometimes I just had to follow the shadows until I found the light’

Some will remember her most for Basic Instinct, for others it will be Casino which sealed her as a bona fide box office sex symbol. But, the actress tells Mark Jones, after a life-threatening stroke in her forties, she’d rather be known for her achievements beyond Hollywood - where she found new purpose in a world of art and desert towns..

If the hat fits: Sharon Stone, pictured in an arts centre in AlUla, is forging a new path as artist and humanitarian (Mohammed Marebid)

An expectant audience gathers as Sharon Stone sits down. It’s exactly like a film set. But she isn’t about to act. She thinks and pauses, before taking out a blank piece of paper and smoothing it out in front of her. Then she takes out a brush and dips it into a little paint and gets to work.

Sharon Stone, the Hollywood star, is now Sharon Stone, artist. She can do this. She has the exhibitions and write-ups in serious arts and cultural journals to prove it.

It was in lockdown that Stone unearthed her own artistic talent. Living in Beverly Hills in the home she bought with her money from Basic Instinct that had “proper gates” to keep out the stalkers, she was given a paint-by-numbers by her friend. It reignited a passion for art that had started when she was a girl after her aunt Vonne had taught her how to paint.