As he sells a run of his prints in aid of a charity that supports youths leaving foster care, Pierce Brosnan has told People magazine: "Art saved my life."
The signed prints of Brosnan's painting Earplugs are being sold by Seasons gallery in Los Angeles to raise funds for A Sense of Home.
Brosnan painted Earplugs while filming his first James Bond film, 1995's GoldenEye.
"I always set up a studio when I go on location," Brosnan tells People. "When I was shooting the action sequences for the movie, the prop master would hand out these packets of earplugs because of the rifles and the explosions. I found the infographic on the back to be steadily pleasing and compositionally intriguing."
Brosnan recounts that he left school at the age of 16 "with nothing but a cardboard folder of drawings and paintings".
"Art saved my life," he continues. "I managed to get a job, and I wanted to be a graphic artist. But I discovered acting three years into working at this studio and that was it, the tide turned."
Brosnan returned to the canvas in 1987 when his first wife, the late Cassandra Harris, was battling cancer. Cassandra Harris passed away aged 43 in 1991.
"It really came to light out of a very hard time in my life. I turned to the world of painting and that gave me a great sense of comfort. Since then, it's matured. I go to the studio each day, even if it's just to clean the brushes or move the paints around."
Brosnan says his work "takes a long time because I'm lazy and I don't paint fast enough".
"Or I get the painting to a certain stage and I fall in love with it," he adds. "But in the end you just have to tackle it - and be fearless."
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People reports that Brosnan will be selling more prints of his paintings in the future, including prints of his portrait of Bob Dylan, which sold at a charity auction in 2018 for $1.4 million.
