Painter opens wine, just the thing for painting? (8)
I believe the answer is:
portrait
'painting?' is the definition.
(portrait is a kind of painting)
'painter opens wine just the thing' is the wordplay.
'painter' becomes 'RA' (member of the Royal Academy of Arts).
'opens' means one lot of letters goes inside another (insertion requires an opening to be made).
'wine just' becomes 'port' (port wine is a kind of wine. I am not sure about the 'just' bit.).
'the thing' becomes 'it'.
'port'+'it'='portit'
'ra' going into 'portit' is 'PORTRAIT'.
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for portrait that I've seen before include "Painting of a real person" , "Person's picture" , "Picture of person" , "Painted likeness of a person" , "Head/shoulders painting" .)