What is a Continualist? Good question! It is yet to be answer’d convincingly by the first three of them, Edinburgh’s Tam Treanor, Glasgow’s Daniel Donnelly, & Arran’s Damo Beeson Bullen. Together they are initiating Scotland’s newest, & freshest art movement.
Major art movements in Scotland are of the rare kind, but do happen, such as in the 1880s & the 1980s when the Glasgow Boys & then the Glasgow New Boys strutted over their canvases with eager, distinctive & very talented brushes dipped in Modernism. Another half-century later, a new group of artists epicentr’d on Glasgow are ready to bare their own artistic souls to the world.
Roll on almost a hundred fifty years, the same idea of setting up an artists colony such as the one at Grez-sur-Loing, which serv’d the original Glasgow Boys, or the fortnight spent in Tunis by Macke, Moilliet & Klee, is bouncing around their conversations right now – a polymathic place to make music, compose poety & of course, paint. But first things first, their debut exhibition is blasting into Glasgow.
Large scale conceptions & abstract details abound thro’ all their works, but the principle matier, which all three painters love to sink their teeth into, is the world of colours. Continualism appreciates the spatial values of colour, as demonstrated by Robert Delauney’s contraste simulante & his ‘chords of colours‘, who declar’d, ‘finding the space-shaping energies of colour, instead of contenting ourselves with a dead chiaroscuro, is our finest task.’ They all enjoy an abstract approach, but differ stylistically between flamboyance & restraint, while Daniel sometimes employs a more geometrically landscaped reflection of both natural & urban settings.
In addition to their love of painting, all three Continualists are talented musicians in their own right. Tam has been quite the nomad when it comes to musical styles – soundscape artist one moment, pianist in an acid-jazz band another, sometimes he’s a singer-songwriter with a guitar & a full band, other times he’s a one-man electro dance-disco live show.
Tam’s current project has the name YEAH!, & involves playing keyboards & singing unique & well crafted songs with band member Joey, who made his cello-double bass-combo himself.
Damo & Daniel are currently working on their new band, which was originally call’d Asphalt Jungle after the1950 Marilyn Monroe film, but on discovering a Parisian punk band from the 70s were call’d Asphalt Jungle, they have renamed their band DIAMOND JUNGLE.
Starting with opening night, live music will be an important part of each Continualism exhibition. It is perhaps something of a ‘Neu Kunstlervereinigung’ group, altho where those artist from Munich reinforced their art with lectures & publications, the Continualists will support their art with bangin’ tunes in a state of mutual interpenetration.
Each of my painting’s tells a story from the soul but they are all informed as traditional landscape’s and as you will see the differences are there from me of seascape or cityscape so I feel there is an individuality to them and also feel that my love for brush and colour has become something intimate to share. The long running experience of botanical drawing, etching, oil paint on canvas, pencil drawing, oil pastel, gauche have all drawn into the experience that is now before me to be part of our ‘Continualist’ movement. Daniel Donnelly
Alongside Tam is the fourth member of the Continualist movement – his seven year old daughter, Frieda Kaiser Treanor. They play music together, they cook together & now they paint together. She has irrepressible artistic talent, & must be one of the youngest Scottish artists to ever exhibit her work.
They began their father and daughter collaboration on canvas in Edinburgh 2020 in response to the covid 19 lockdown and distancing restrictions. It was not easy to find activities with other children when restricted to their house, so Tam and Frieda went into their imaginations and creative escape.
They found some used canvases, some paint they had left over from renovating their home and began exploring what they could create together. Their mood and the environment in which they paint often informs how and what emerges in their work. They seldom use paint brushes, preferring to use twigs, leaves, plastic bags or other objects from the place in which they are painting. In this way they try to capture the moment in their paintings.
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