English artist certain for cancellation (7)
I believe the answer is:
erasure
'for cancellation' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'english artist certain' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'certain' becomes 'sure' (synonyms).
'e'+'ra'+'sure'='ERASURE'
(Other definitions for erasure that I've seen before include "Deletion by an act of expunging" , "Process of rubbing out" , "Removal" , "Effect of surface damage" , "Rubbing out - English synthpop duo" .)