Artist's mother to pose for painters around the London area (7)
I believe the answer is:
matisse
'artist's' is the definition.
(Henri Matisse)
'for painters around the london area' is the wordplay.
'for' becomes 'ma' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'painters' becomes 'artists' (I've seen this before).
'around' indicates the central letters.
'the london area' becomes 'SE' (abbreviation for South East).
The middle letters of 'artists' are 'tis'.
'ma'+'tis'+'se'='MATISSE'
'mother to pose' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for matisse that I've seen before include "Henri -, Fr. artist" , "French painter, Henri, d.1954" , "Henri -, nineteenth-twentieth century French painter/sculptor" , "Mae sits badly for the French painter" , "20th century French painter" .)