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Work like this has several names- Flash painting, Speed painting, Snapper painting.
It's an easy trick. Some roadside artists use it to attract folks to pull off, watch, and buy a painting.
The canvas is painted black, and there's a faint outline sketch of the shapes drawn on it using either a grey or a white colored pencil.
The sketch is done like usual, and then the canvas is turned 180º on the show easel for painting.
Once a sketch is done, it doesn't matter if the painting is upside down or right-side up when it's being painted; turning them upside down while painting is common, especially on large canvases, to get to spots that would be hard to reach right side up.
It makes for a very nice visual, but there's nothing difficult with it. I thought using the big drywall float trowel loaded with the flag colors was a cool little kick at the end. Lots of artists use those plaster trowels to lay the ground gesso when preparing a canvas, but most are much smaller.
The trick happens because the audience doesn't have the picture pre-visualized in their heads like the artist has. Silhouettes are especially mysterious until everything comes together and gives the viewer's eyes enough visual cues to make out the representation.
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