Characteristics of an artist (6)
I believe the answer is:
traits
'characteristics' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'of an artist' is the wordplay.
'of' is an anagram indicator (the answer comes from or 'of' the letters).
'artist' with letters rearranged gives 'TRAITS'.
(Other definitions for traits that I've seen before include "Personality characteristics" , "Identifying characteristics" , "Features or qualities that distinguish someone's character" , "Distinguishing features" , "Characteristics, distinguishing qualities" .)