Iain Maclean is Scottish, Polish/Swedish, born and brought up in Zambia, on the Congo border and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

He moved to London and studied at Goldsmiths College and then Byam Shaw/St Martins College.

He became an advertising copywriter and then creative director, at a number of leading London advertising agencies, where he won over 40 creative awards 

He retired in 2016 to concentrate on art. 

Artist’s Statement -

My earliest influences were African and later, European art - the latter, from books. 

My attitude to art can be traced back to an incident when I was 13 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, I discovered some prehistoric cave paintings in a mysterious place called the Matopos. 

So, for me, art has always been magical; above money, pretty decoration, beauty, slavish realism, hyper-realism and superficialities. As Georgia O’Keefe said, “I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.” 

I know I should stick to one theme, but I’m always exploring different themes and ideas, such as: politics; relationships; the search for God; slavery (my mother was a slave of the USSR); war and human and organic forms.