Painter pretentiously about to clarify (9)
I believe the answer is:
interpret
'clarify' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'painter pretentiously about' is the wordplay.
'about' indicates the answer is hidden within the clue.
'INTERPRET' is hidden within 'painter pretentiously'.
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for interpret that I've seen before include "Translate, decode" , "Gloss needed" , "Restate from one language into another" , "Read" , "Explain the meaning of - another language?" .)