Could be traits of a painter (6)
I believe the answer is:
artist
'a painter' is the definition.
(painter is an example)
'could be traits' is the wordplay.
'could be' indicates an anagram.
'traits' is an anagram of 'ARTIST'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for artist that I've seen before include "Creator of beauty" , "Skilled person" , "Bacon, for example?" , "Creative individual" , "Creator of aesthetic works" .)