Painting by the French - strange twist (5)
I believe the answer is:
mural
'painting' is the definition.
(I know that mural is a type of painting)
'by the french strange twist' is the wordplay.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'the french' becomes 'la' ('the' in French).
'strange' becomes 'rum' (synonyms).
'twist' is a reversal indicator (I've seen 'twisted ' mean this).
'la' put next to 'rum' is 'larum'.
'larum' written backwards gives 'MURAL'.
(Other definitions for mural that I've seen before include "Artwork" , "Drawing on a wall" , "Wall design" , "Wall decoration" , "Large wall painting" .)