Painterly and Loose Handling of Paint —what’s the difference?

"Painterly" and "loose" handling of oil paint are terms I have freely interchanged for years, and haven't thought too much about it until recently. In my opinion I need "loose" handling of paint in order to be "painterly," so they're one and the same to me. Then I thought I'd investigate.

In general here's what I found. I’ll end this post quoting artist Bill White, in a comment he left on the Painting Perceptions web site.

When paint application, by brushwork or by palette knife, is emphasized and highly visible, it is "painterly." It can be a kind of "handwriting" and is expressive of the artist's response to her subject. Paint is applied in tonal/color shapes or "patches" or a specific type of brushstroke, such as in VanGoghs' paintings. Line and outline are not important in this mode of painting.  The painterly style is evidence of the artist's process of seeing, and responding through manipulation of paint, making full use of its sensual qualities.

Quoting Bill White,

"…Louis Finkelstein saw the role of the painterly as a way of seeing and translating experience into form. The painterly is not just a "wiggly" brushstroke, but a synthesis of the perceived and the sensual and the unconscious, and the painting is the evidence of this unfolding process as the work is made, and discovered..."  

Beautiful.

Louis Finkelstein, Bastion de Cezanne II, 1999 Pastel on paper 14x16

Barber, detail, Three Sunflowers, oil/canvas 8" x 10"