3 questions for Sharon Stone, whose paintings are being exhibited at a gallery: It's 'just so personal'

Sharon Stone is known, first and foremost, as the star of hit movies such as Casino and Basic Instinct. But her main focus when the world shut down during the pandemic was her family and another type of art: painting.

The actress has painted since she was a little girl, when her Aunt Vonne crafted murals in her home, and Stone herself studied the subject in college. Since she's returned to it, her art is being praised by the likes of Jerry Saltz, a senior art critic from New York Magazine, and it's been exhibited in Los Angeles. Now, 19 of her latest pieces will be shown Oct. 12 through Dec. 3 at C. Parker Gallery in Greenwich, Conn., outside of New York City.

"I have not been working as an actor that much," Stone, whose recent credits include a stint on the Kaley Cuoco series The Flight Attendant, tells Yahoo Entertainment "I feel I'll work as an actor if the right material comes along, but the painting is something that I do all the time. I don't have to wait for someone else."

Tapping into a different part of her creative self, coupled with buckling down with her sons, made the COVID era more than tolerable for Stone.

"I loved the time during the pandemic... the opportunity to be with my kids," Stone says. "I feel it was hard for them not to be able to be with their peers on one hand, but my two boys are a year apart, and my other son, who's five years older, was here, and so they all had each other, which was really kind of fantastic. So I had this house full of boys, and we had each other, and I was painting."

Stone took a break from her painting, which she does for at least four hours a day now, to answer three questions for Yahoo Entertainment. The interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

1. What is the difference between releasing a movie and showing your art?

"Well, I think there's this great collaboration that I do with others when I work on films and when I allow the spirit of another person to come through my being. But there's something about my art that's just so personal and it's just so individual, and so it's very different," Stone explains. "I feel like I'm transmitting something... it's like it's part of nature in a way. I feel very close to nature when I paint."

But the best part about painting, Stone says, is sharing her work.

"I love when people come and find the painting that really resonates with them... What I really like is when people send me photographs of my paintings in their home or office space or wherever they put it. I love receiving the photographs of my art in other people's spaces. That makes me feel so wonderful. It's my favorite thing."

2. How, if at all, has your painting helped you cope with your grief and health issues?

"When my brother died, I painted a beautiful painting about him, and when I lost my nephew, I think I painted the best painting I have painted thus far. I think that my very best painting was a tribute to my godson and nephew," says Stone, who experienced the loss in February, almost two years after the death of her brother's infant son.

The actress and activist has dealt with the fallout from health-related issues, too, following a stroke and brain hemorrhage in 2001, which she's said made it difficult for her to get hired in Hollywood. Art is an escape from thinking about any of that.

"I do feel that I get lost in my art," she says. "That is very true."

3. What is inspiring you in your art and just in your life now?

"Well, I have these three kids. They're not really little kids anymore. They're 17, 18, and 23," Stone says. "They're my main concern and my main focus."

So they're a big part of what inspires her. But they're not the only thing.

"I find nature very, very interesting and very, very beautiful," Stone adds, "and I think that we have to really stay focused on how beautiful our environment is and how important our environment is."