Stoop Sitting at the Salmagundi

Salmagundi Stoop Sitters
Oil on canvas
12x9 inches

In this new painting, 3 women are sitting on the broad brownstone steps of the venerable Salmagundi Club on Fifth Avenue and 12th Street. Stoop sitters were once a common sight with people congregating outdoors to catch up on local gossip, get a breath of fresh air and check out the goings-on in the neighborhood. These 3 caught my eye as I was leaving an art exhibit at the club a few years ago and there was something about this intimate scene that gave me the idea of this painting.

When I was growing up in a Queen's co-op, we didn't have stoops but we did have copings, short brick walls where both kids and adults gathered to meet up and congregate. Sometimes the residents in the apartments facing the street and the copings were none too happy due to the noise that filtered up to their homes, but that was the neighborhood.

Stoop sitters as well as fire escape sitters are still around, but not as numerous as they once were in this urban city.

For more information on the Salmaguni Club, here is a link.