Born in Dunedin New Zealand, Colin Lanceley came to Australia just a year later. In 1954 he was apprenticed as a colour photo engraver in the printing industry and then went on to study at East Sydney Technical College graduating with an Art Diploma in 1960. A year later, together with Michael Brown and Ross Crothall, he formed the Imitation Realist Group and Exhibited work at the Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne and the Rudy Komon Gallery in Sydney.