Cryptic crossword clue
Appearing before the Guardian’s motley crew: a lot are no oil paintings! 12

The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 12 letter word WATERCOLOURS

I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
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Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "no oil paintings" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case no oil paintings = watercolours.
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.
This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.

What does WATERCOLOURS mean?

WATERCOLOURS noun
  1. A water-soluble pigment.
  2. A painting made by using such pigment.
  3. This kind of painting as a genre.

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