Extremist from university left paintings around? (5)
I believe the answer is:
ultra
'extremist' is the definition.
('ultra' can be a synonym of 'extremist')
'university left paintings around?' is the wordplay.
'university' becomes 'u'.
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'paintings' becomes 'art' (I've seen this before).
'around?' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (I've seen 'around' mean this).
'art' in reverse letter order is 'tra'.
'u'+'l'+'tra'='ULTRA'
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for ultra that I've seen before include "Over the top" , "Prefix meaning excessively or extremely" , "Far beyond the norm" , "Prefix meaning beyond or excessively" , "Above, beyond, super" .)