He painted melting dial (4)
I believe the answer is:
dali
'he painted' is the definition.
(painter Salvador Dali)
'melting dial' is the wordplay.
'melting' indicates anagramming the letters.
'dial' is an anagram of 'DALI'.
(Other definitions for dali that I've seen before include "Surrealist Spanish painter, d. 1989" , "Tree" , "Salvador --, twentieth century Spanish surrealist painter" , "Salvador . . . . was great Spanish surrealist painter" , "Salvador among artists" .)