Engineers award for painting, perhaps (14)
I believe the answer is:
representation
'engineers award' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
I can't explain the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for representation that I've seen before include "show" , "Sketch" , "Model or depiction (of something)" , "Image or model (of something)" , "Picture" .)