Beach artist is a woman (6)
I believe the answer is:
sandra
'woman' is the definition.
'beach artist' is the wordplay.
'beach' becomes 'sand'.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'sand'+'ra'='SANDRA'
'is a' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for sandra that I've seen before include "girl" , "Girl's name" , "woman's name" , "So woman" .)