The definition of Painterly

Answer 1

The term painterly is used to describe a painting done in a style that embraces, shows, and celebrates the medium it's created in (be it oil paint, acrylics, pastels, watercolor, etc.), rather than tries to hide the act of creation.

 

In centuries past (and in various modern art movements such as Photorealism) painters worked hard to eliminate or conceal any evident brushmarks or texture in a painting, blending and smoothing to hide all evidence of how the painting was created.