Reggie Sultan attended Alice Springs Convent School until Grade 5. At age twelve he was made a ward of the state and was sent to Engadine Boys' Town in New South Wales, then to Yasma Boys' Home were he began to paint. He continued painting after being sent to Mittagong Boys' Home where he went to Mittagong school. Sultan also spent time at Essington House, Milly Point, Darwin and Mount Barker Boys' Home.
He worked on cattle stations in the Northern Territory and continued to paint, becoming a successful Aboriginal artist, painting in both the landscape style with watercolours and the non-figurative traditional Central Australian Aboriginal art style.