Marina Brown
 |  Tallahassee Democrat correspondent

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, but whether you get up.”

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

It seems that these very aphorisms might apply to artist Paul Tamanian, 70, a nationally-acclaimed, Tallahassee painter who less than six months ago “stepped off the plank” to open Paul Tamanian Fine Art, a 3,000 sq. ft., bespoke art gallery in the middle of the capital city’s bustling Midtown area.

But now, the big glass doors have closed on the totally renovated stand-alone premises at 1130 Thomasville Road — and the dream.

There are other galleries in town: Venvi Gallery; Signature Gallery; 621, Strauss. But the size and what might be called the “chutzpah” of the Tamanian enterprise set it apart.

Paul Tamanian had decided to “take a chance” on Tallahassee, believing that North Floridians could be connoisseurs of fine art as much as a Manhattanite or the international collectors adorning their homes with his mega-size abstracts.

Yet on the last weekend of July, Paul Tamanian sat quietly alone in his sprawling gallery, six to nine-foot explosions of abstract art lining the walls, each created on aluminum with paint blow-torched into position. His polished steel sculptures perch on wooden stands; his idiosyncratic lacquered surf boards, megaliths by themselves, rest in corners — but no one is here.

And according to Tamanian, it has been this way from the start.

“I guess you could say I misjudged the market,” he admits. He had expected professionals—attorneys, physicians, large company leaders wishing to decorate their offices to be a major part of his buyers. He believed that with the exploding housing market, there would be new owners seeking his brilliant wall-hangings.

But, he says, the long weekend afternoons and hours during the week of sitting alone in the gallery, “with not one person coming in even to look around,” grew enough to lead Tamanian to finally say, “Yes,” when the landlord indicated there was a gym owner who would like to rent the space.

He says candidly, “Even though I have 18 paintings in The Huntsman Restaurant in Tallahassee, and will fill their new restaurant near Carillon Beach, as well as other commissions around the country, you just can’t pay $5,000 a month overhead for a gallery forever with no sales.”

He did try. There was using his gallery as a wedding venue, for receptions, private parties, and fundraisers — he even thought of opening it up for yoga. But it was never enough. And purchases were never made through those efforts.

However, the dynamic Tamanian, who didn’t take up professional art creation until his 40s, says that he will go on creating. “I always have new ideas, one after another. And I will continue to sell my work to Tallahassee from my home and have “home shows” there.”

But he admits that the life of an artist hasn’t been easy. “From the social media agency that wanted $5,000 a month, to the big gallery-owners, who want most of the profits,” sweating in the sun to make his art has been the easy part.

A glance at art magazine, Contemporary Art Issue, tells some of the story: “Thirty percent of art galleries are losing money. After expenses, only 18% have profit margins of 20%.”

Local gallery forums commiserate that, “Between recessions and COVID, we’re going out of business;” “Without foot-traffic, you’re dead.” And, perhaps the basis of all other problems: “basically, we’re trying to sell something that nobody really NEEDS.”

And yet, as Paul Tamanian will attest, artists will make art. And along the bumpy way, there will be images that, need them or not, someone will pay for simply because the colors or the lines spoke to them —called out from behind a window — and promised joy with every glance.

Paul Tamanian can be contacted at paultamanianstudio.com or paul@paultamanianstudio.com or 850-459-0999.