Sharon Stone says she is grateful for painting

CONNECTICUT

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

" I love painting in the big scale and it's opened something in me... It's moved something inside of me. And my first show was called 'Shedding' because I started realizing I was shedding a lot of oppression," said Stone. Over the past several years she has carved out studio space in her home where she works both indoors and outdoors.

Her first showing of work was in California. The new show, her second, titled “Welcome to My Garden” features 19 paintings.

Stone says she is grateful for her new outlet because she has suffered many health problems for years that kept her from getting steady acting work.

"I mean, everyone thought I was going to die. So many, many, many bad things happened to me because people presumed that I was dead. So, like, my bank account somehow went to zero while I was in the hospital, my money disappeared. I lost custody of my child. My career ended," Stone says.

Now she says she has taken control of her health and treatment and painting has helped her healing.

"I'm a woman with a brain seizure condition. I have a disability, and painting has helped me not have the anxiety I had. I stopped cutting my hair because I was just so anxious all the time. I was just so anxious that I wasn't going to be OK and I couldn't be accepted and it wouldn't be right," Stone explained