Artist diving in near fish (8)
I believe the answer is:
stingray
'fish' is the definition.
(type of fish)
'artist diving in near' is the wordplay.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'diving in' indicates putting letters inside.
'near' becomes 'stingy' (I've seen this before).
'ra' placed into 'stingy' is 'STINGRAY'.
(Other definitions for stingray that I've seen before include "Marine creature with venomous tail" , "Dangerous fish" , "Large venomous fish -- it's angry (anag)" , "Fish with venomous tail" , "Large fish with tail spine" .)