Artist is a noodler, sadly (8)
I believe the answer is:
leonardo
'artist' is the definition.
(Leonardo is an example)
'a noodler sadly' is the wordplay.
'sadly' indicates an anagram.
'a'+'noodler'='anoodler'
'anoodler' is an anagram of 'LEONARDO'.
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for leonardo that I've seen before include "and 12 Across: Renaissance genius" , "Renaissance man" , "Great Italian artist ........ da Vinci" , "Great painter of the Mona Lisa, . . . . . . . . da Vinci" , ". . . . . . . . da Vinci (Renaissance genius)" .)