Dunstan Gerbert Raphael St Omer was born on 23 October 1927 in Castries, Saint Lucia, and developed into the island's most celebrated visual artist, forming a lifelong creative friendship with his schoolmate, the future Nobel laureate poet Derek Walcott.
St Omer left Saint Lucia to study art abroad before returning home, where he dedicated much of his career to painting religious murals in churches across the island, works that blended Catholic iconography with distinctly Saint Lucian faces, landscapes and symbolism.
In 1967, as Saint Lucia approached statehood under Chief Minister John Compton, the government held a national competition for a new flag design, and the 39-year-old St Omer's entry, a cerulean blue field with a black and white triangular design, was declared the winner.
St Omer's flag design was carried through Saint Lucia's full independence in 1979 with only minor aesthetic modifications, and its symbolism, representing the island's volcanic peaks rising from the sea, became a defining visual expression of Saint Lucian national identity.
St Omer continued painting prolifically for decades, and was declared a National Cultural Hero on his 80th birthday in 2007, awarded the Saint Lucia Cross, the nation's highest honour, in 2004, and knighted in 2010; he died in 2015, celebrated as the country's best-known artist.
- Designed the national flag of Saint Lucia, adopted 1967 and carried through independence in 1979
- Painted numerous celebrated religious murals across Saint Lucian churches
- Declared a National Cultural Hero, 2007
- Awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the West Indies, 2009
- Knighted for his contributions to Saint Lucian art, 2010
- A single design can become an enduring national symbol. St Omer's 1967 flag entry has represented Saint Lucia's identity for nearly six decades with only minor changes.
- Art can carry both spiritual and national meaning. St Omer's religious murals and his flag design both wove distinctly Saint Lucian identity into their symbolism.