Another day, I headed off to the Lower Eastside. It's such a wonderful mix of cultures all mixed together. A beautiful gem embedded in the middle of Chinatown sits the Eldridge Street Synagoue. I missed the NYC urban sketchers outing a week earlier where they went there. It sounded intriguing so I set out to find it on a cold NY morning. The museum wasn't open yet so I went hunting for a coffee shop. I found a Starbucks on the corner of Delancy and Allen warmed my hands as I drank my tea. Then turned around to see the busy corner. The yellow just popped out at me.
Once the synagogue/museum opened I found an intriguing history and a dark but beauriful interior. One of the more colorful stories included the time when the Jewish women in the neighborhood staged a massive protest when kosher meat went from 12 cents to 18 cents a pound. They interrupted a service at the synagogue and garnered a lot of media attention. And they managed to bring the price back down to 14 cents/lb.
In this sketch, I started with one of those well laid perspective plans, but I get too impatient. Not only that I couldn't actually see the structure very well due to glaring chandeliers,The synagogue is very proud of the chandeliers, which used to be gaslight lamps, but their glare didn't really light up the interior as much as hide it. I tried to sketch beyond the lights and didn't include them in my drawing.
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