Eric Spencer Macky painter, muralist, printmaker, lecturer, and educator, was born in Auckland, New Zealand on November 16, 1880. His studies began in his teens after winning a scholarship to the Elam Art School in Auckland. By the age of twenty-three, he had moved to Melbourne to attend the National Gallery School. Three years in Paris followed enrolled at Académie Julian where he studied with Jean-Paul Laurens.

Macky arrived in the U.S. in 1911 and settled in Oakland. His career as an educator began at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1913. During the ensuing years, Macky taught at the Univerisity of California at Berkeley and the California School of Fine Arts where he became Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Painting and Drawing. A cofounder of the California Society of Etchers and board member of the San Francisco Art Association, Macky was also a member of the Bohemian Club, and the Society of Western Artists.

Macky exhibited extensively in America and Europe. He was included in the 1910 Salon des Artistes, Paris; the1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, San Francisco; Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco; San Francisco Museum of Art Inaugural; and the Bohemian Club and annually with the San Francisco Art Association. His work is represented in the collections of Mills College, Stanford Art Gallery, the Bohemian Club, the San Francisco Museum of Art.

Spencer Macky died in San Francisco on May 5, 1958.