Why do we call the painting “painting” when it’s already done?
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In English, we have something called “verbal nouns” where an action word is not only an action, but also the name of the action or the result of an action (so it becomes a thing). One common form is using action words ending in ‘-ing’. Painting, gardening, ringing, etc.
There’s even a special word for certain uses of the ‘-ing’ verbal nouns called “gerunds”. The word word “painting” can be used both as a verbal noun or as a gerund. The difference between the two is kind of tricky, but if the -ing word is the subject or direct object of a sentence, and refers to an idea rather than a physical object, then it’s a gerund. Gerunds always end in -ing, but verbal nouns don’t need to. Gerunds are always singular, but verbal nouns don’t have to be.
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