Ian Rictor was born at Artulin, or Tuwan, and was the last of the known Aboriginal people to have remained living traditionally in the Western Desert, only emerging from the bush with his family group in 1986. Ian paints with a quiet reverence for the country that he depicts, the endless interior that makes up Spinifex Lands. Ian walked from water source to food source and beyond, this was a cultural and family existence for survival in an arid land before his family were ‘brought in’ by relatives in 1986. Ian’s compositions centre on the life affirming sites he depicts and each are multi layered with meaning. Many are surrounded with secrecy and only surface details can be recorded. In 1997 Ian joined the Spinifex painters and began painting the compositions of his country with fluency and has since exhibited and joined collections in both Australia and overseas.
