Born in Lochwinnoch in 1926, McClure graduated in the early 1950s from Edinburgh College of Art where his contemporaries included Blackadder, Houston and Michie and where he similarly came under the various influences of the major Edinburgh figures of the time; Redpath, Gillies, Maxwell, MacTaggart, Henderson Blyth. In his early career he spent significant periods working in Spain, Italy, Sicily and Norway and taught at Dundee College of Art from 1957-85 retiring as Head of Painting, a post he took over from his great friend and colleague Alberto Morrocco.
