Painters in dire straits (7)
I believe the answer is:
artists
'painters' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'dire straits' is the wordplay.
'dire' is an anagram indicator.
'straits' anagrammed gives 'ARTISTS'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for artists that I've seen before include "Monet and Manet, for example" , "creative types may find themselves" , "Painters" , "They imagine" , "Creative people" .)