Chewy sweet painter fed to artiodactyl mammal (7)
I believe the answer is:
caramel
'chewy sweet' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'painter fed to artiodactyl mammal' is the wordplay.
'painter' becomes 'RA' (member of the Royal Academy of Arts).
'fed to' is an insertion indicator.
'artiodactyl mammal' becomes 'camel' (camel is a kind of artiodactyl mammal).
'ra' inserted within 'camel' is 'CARAMEL'.
(Other definitions for caramel that I've seen before include "Sugar solution heated till brown" , "Chewy sweet - burnt sugar" , "Soft sweet" , "Toffee-like sweet" , "It's produced by heating sugar until brown" .)