Dan McAvey's Bog Plein Air Paintings

Last summer, MCAD faculty member Dan McAvey ’22 spent a week in the Sax-Zim Bog, an internationally known birding and conservation area in northern Minnesota as part of an artists residency. The residency brought together six artists who spent their time immersed in the bog and created work to help promote conservation efforts.

McAvey’s plein air paintings have recently focused on the concept of “soft fascination”: the gentle, meandering attention that happens naturally outside. As he told MapleGrove Magazine, “we spend our days in focused attention, but when we get out in nature, it’s kind of the opposite. Your mind kind of bounces from one thing to the next.

Learn more

• Dan McAvey’s Brush With Nature
  (maplegrovemag.com—March 2026)
• Dan McAvey’s Residency
  (mcad.edu—August 26, 2025)