Creative painter, returning to attic after losing head, is found inside (8)
I believe the answer is:
artistic
'creative' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'painter returning to attic after losing head is found inside' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'painter' could be 'artist' (painter is an example) and 'artist' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for artistic that I've seen before include "Fine-looking" , "in an aesthetic way" , "Creative; ornamental" , "crafty!" , "I stir cat (anag.)" .)