September 2025 saw me driving East along the Kootenay Skyway towards Creston, BC. Driving cautiously over the large never ending pass I was excited to get to the Empire of Dirt Residency run by Marnie Temple and her partner Jim. I met Marnie a few month earlier when we were both on our summer residency programs at Emily Carr University in Vancouver. She was finishing her Masters at the time and was focused on her gallery show and thesis defence. We didn’t get a chance to chat too much so I was happy I was given the opportunity to attend her residency, get to know her better and spend some quality solo time exploring some ideas in my painting.

Heading north out of Creston a right turn winds me up a road following the contour of Arrow Mountain. Empire of Dirt (EOD) is high up on a beautiful, partially cleared block overlooking Creston Valley and Kootenay River.

Marnie and Jim met me by their home, which sits at the top of the residencies property. They showed me through the private studio spaces they have across the property, all of which they hand built themselves over the years. Each one is immaculately finished and built to have its own special feeling and unique experience. There is a feeling of isolation imbued in the property and studio spaces, something I think is important for Marnie and Jim as they hope artists feel disconnected from daily life to delve deep into their practice.

This was certainly the case for me. I stayed off my phone and embraced the silence that comes with the property. I decided to focus my practice on abstract painting and how painting on the land can inform my practice. Using intuitive guidance I found spaces around the property to paint in, where I would sit and watch while painting or lay the canvas unstretched flat on the earth and paint standing up.

I chose to focus on the idea that intuition is a space for study. This idea came through Jennifer Fisher’s writing in her book Technologies of Intuition. As a space of study, I wanted to listen to what intuition had to say as I responded to it’s different forms of communication. Internal, bodily sensations and voices (saying “now use red”) informed the directions and decisions made through the painting process.

To access this part of myself I need to tap into a flow state. Flow state, for me, requires a hyper focused attention something that can be quite draining. For this reason, I felt like the connection being made to the intuitive world needed to rest and recover just as much as I did. For that reason, paintings were done in short two to three hour periods of time, reading, writing, eating and enjoying the surroundings helped me recover before painting again.

Paintings drying on the back deck of the studio

The works I left the residency with were interesting to me. They were not like any paintings I had produced in the past. For this reason, they were kind of confronting. Only now, one year later can I look back on them and enjoy them. This happens a lot with the paintings I do, I am quick to dismiss and criticise them. This is dangerous as I regularly scrape back and paint over paintings that I “don’t like.” Sometimes this is purely a financial choice but other times I just don’t allow the painting to settle long enough for me to appreciate it.

Overall, my time spent with Marnie and Jim at their beautiful residency was amazing, informative and shaped the direction of my masters thesis. I am looking forward to getting back there as soon as I can.