Macleod was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and moved to Sydney, Australia in 1981, where he lives and works.
He received a Certificate in Graphic Design from Christchurch Technical College in 1975 and a Diploma in Fine Arts (Painting) from the University of Canterbury in 1979.
The lone, anonymous figure is a common symbol in his work that embodies both the artist's self-portrait and the "Everyman" or universal experience of emptiness, worthlessness and impotence.
[2] He has been described as both an expressionist and a symbolist and his dense, textured and sculptural use of paint has become a consistent feature of his work.
In 1980 he was involved in his first exhibition Tar Paint Plastic at the Settlement Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand with artists Debra Bustin and Alison Clouston, which was hailed as an "impressive debut" by reviewer Neil Rowe.