Bruce McGrew was born in Wichita, Kansas on October 20, 1937. Following his graduation in 1961 from Wichita State University where he received his BFA, he moved to Tucson to attend graduate school at the University of Arizona. He earned his MFA in 1964 and moved to Minnesota where he taught painting and drawing for two years at the University of Minnesota at Morris. The light and landscape of Arizona had captured his imagination and he returned in 1966 eventually teaching at the University of Arizona for thirty-three years. McGrew also taught at the University’s allied programs in Guadalajara and San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, as well as Edinburgh, Scotland. He was among a small group of artist’s who founded the Rancho Linda Vista art cooperative in Oracle. Rancho Linda Vista became his studio and home where he and his wife, Fox, raised their family. McGrew’s work is represented in the collections of the Cedar City Art Museum, Hays State University, Rocky Mountain National Park, Tucson Museum of Art, University of Arizona Museum of Art, University of Arizona Law School, University of Minnesota and the Raymond Johnson Museum of the University of New Mexico.

Bruce McGrew died on August 10, 1999 in Arizona.