Characteristic paintings turned over onto it (5)
I believe the answer is:
trait
'characteristic' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'paintings turned over onto it' is the wordplay.
'paintings' becomes 'art' (I've seen this before).
'turned over' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'onto' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'art' in reverse letter order is 'tra'.
'tra'+'it'='TRAIT'
(Other definitions for trait that I've seen before include "A characteristic of straitened kind" , "Attribute, characteristic" , "Characteristic or distinguishing quality" , "Decorative band" , "Quirk" .)