Below the slopes of the Catalinas north face, the Bachman Wash twists its way through thickets of mesquite and creosote. Given a German name loosely translated as man by the brook, the beloved wash snakes through the Rancho Linda Vista artist colony in Oracle. It s an arroyo both sandy and rocky, and it changes with the seasons. Sometimes it s a raging creek, sometimes a bed of wildflowers, sometimes a parched and desperate gulch. For 38 years, from 1968, when the ranch got started, to 1999 when he died, painter Bruce McGrew lived just a few steps away. He was deeply attached to a distinctive bend in the wash, and he painted it again and again.