Painter pretending to cover render (9)
I believe the answer is:
interpret
'render' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'painter pretending to cover' is the wordplay.
'to cover' indicates the answer is hidden within the clue (I've seen 'covered' mean this (the answer is covered up by the clue)).
'INTERPRET' can be found hidden inside 'painter pretending'.
(Other definitions for interpret that I've seen before include "Restate from one language into another" , "Translate, make sense of" , "Translate or take one's own meaning from" , "Gloss needed" , "Translate, decode" .)