Age of eastern artist (3)
I believe the answer is:
era
'age' is the definition.
(both can mean a long time)
'eastern artist' is the wordplay.
'eastern' becomes 'e'.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'e'+'ra'='ERA'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for era that I've seen before include "Age marked by a distinctive character" , "Are involved in time span" , "Long stretch" , "Important time" , "Series of years" .)