絵画
かいが · kaiga · JLPT N3 · noun
painting
🖼️🎨 絵 (e, drawing) + 画 (ga, brushwork) = a painting; the formal art word
絵 has 糸 (thread) on the left, since early artworks were embroidered in silk. 画 began as a brush marking out the edges of a field. Together, 絵画 is the formal word for paintings, the kind you hear in museums and art classes.
画 — hand 一 + field 田 + frame 凵
Originally a pictograph of a hand holding a brush drawing boundaries around a field, depicting the act of marking out land. The top once showed a brush (聿), and 田 represents the field being divided. Over time it came to mean 'to draw, paint' and also 'a stroke' in characters.