Trib­utes have been pour­ing in fol­low­ing the death of cel­e­brat­ed lo­cal artist LeRoy Clarke who died ear­ly this morn­ing at the age of 82.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said in a state­ment that T&T had "sad­ly lost a true ge­nius of the soil, icon and pi­o­neer of Caribbean art".

She added: "Mr Clarke was a tru­ly gift­ed painter and po­et, but those la­bels alone do not do him or his work jus­tice. Mr Clarke be­longed to that pan­theon of great Trinidad and To­ba­go in­tel­lec­tu­als, who trans­formed Caribbean cul­ture, and proved that Caribbean artists could stand shoul­der to shoul­der with those from any­where around the world.

"Draw­ing from the rich tra­di­tions of our lo­cal folk­lore, as well as his proud African her­itage, Mr Clarke’s cavass­es sought to de­pict the strug­gle of op­pressed peo­ples. His brush­strokes were the weapons by which he hoped to eman­ci­pate those liv­ing un­der re­pres­sion."

Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell said Clarke was one of this coun­try's finest con­tem­po­rary artists.

"This coun­try owes a debt to him for his life's con­tri­bu­tion; this is a great loss to Trinidad and To­ba­go, but we are cul­tur­al­ly rich­er be­cause of his work and in­flu­ence," Mitchell said.

He added: "On be­half of the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture, and the Arts, I ex­press my heart­felt con­do­lences to Dr Clarke's fam­i­ly and the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. We will con­tin­ue to ho­n­our and pre­serve the lega­cy he has be­stowed up­on this coun­try."