Sharon Stone has been shortlisted for the 2025 Women In Art Prize after pursuing a parallel career as a painter, organisers and publicity material show.
The 67-year-old actress said being recognised among women artists was a lifelong ambition and that she had "entered my painting because I love women artists and my dream is to be recognised among them." She is shortlisted alongside visually impaired painter Bianca Raffaella and portrait photographer Jenny Lewis.
The Women In Art Prize exhibition will be held at York Street Gallery in London from 16 to 24 September 2025. Winners of the eighth edition of the prize will be announced at an awards ceremony at the British Library's Pigott Theatre on 17 September.
Stone has described how a near-fatal brain haemorrhage in 2001 led to lasting visual distortions that she says influenced her art. "Since I had a stroke, I started seeing colour patterns on the wall," she said in recent comments. "I had to take medication to stop it, but I don’t think it ever really went away, because I still see all this extra colour everywhere." Organisers and press material include images of work submitted to the prize; one publicity image is identified as "Flirting" and Stone has also posted a large watercolor she titled "Mother Earth" on social media.
Stone has long said she learned to paint as a child from an aunt who held degrees in English and fine arts. She has posted images of her studio in Beverly Hills and has described experimenting with a variety of tools, including makeup brushes, to create large-scale watercolours.
Alongside her artistic practice, Stone has a public record of humanitarian work and has received honours including the Harvard Humanitarian Award, a Nobel Peace Summit Award and France's Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Her entry into the visual arts has been documented in intermittent social media posts dating back several years, when she described taking up painting as a hobby and then increasing the scale and ambition of her projects.
The Women In Art Prize aims to highlight the work of women artists across media; this year's exhibition and awards will provide the public and judges the opportunity to view shortlisted works in London before the winner announcement on 17 September.