NEW YORK — Seeking to curry favor with a constituency that has been somewhat skeptical of him, Democratic mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani participated in a watercolor painting class with older New Yorkers at a senior center in Brooklyn on Thursday.

His outreach effort received a mixed response.

“He sounds very impressive, but it’s like I’m saying I just learned about him … It’s just all of a sudden he’s running for mayor, and I’m like, ‘Who is he? What did he do before?’ I don’t know any of that,” Denise Lipscomb, a 67-year-old retired city government worker, told the Daily News after listening to Mamdani deliver remarks to her and other seniors participating in the painting class at the Fort Greene Council in Bedstuy.

Lipscomb, who used to work for the city’s Human Resources Administration, said she will vote in Tuesday’s mayoral election, but remains unsure about who to back between Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo, his chief rival in the race.

“(Cuomo) was there before, what much did he do?” she said, a reference to his time as governor. “I’m like just thinking on it.”

Mamdani, a Queens Assembly member who at 34 would become the youngest mayor in modern city history, is polling as the favorite to win next week’s election, consistently holding a double digit edge over Cuomo in survey after survey.

Yet, one of Mamdani’s weak spots is older generations of New Yorkers.

Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual and professional misconduct accusations he denies, has in the polls been beating Mamdani with older voters, some of whom are uneasy about Mamdani’s level of executive experience and unabashed left-wing politics.

Early voting started Saturday, and voters over 55, as of Wednesday night, made up a slim majority of those showing up at polling sites, a trend that could benefit Cuomo.

Against that backdrop, Mamdani showed up at the senior center in Bedstuy on Thursday. He spent about 30 minutes working on a water color painting of a forest landscape while chatting with seniors about his campaign and their lives.

“I have to warn you I am not very good at painting,” Mamdani told them at one point.

In remarks, Mamdani told the room he has been vexed by his agenda being portrayed as a platform only for young people. His campaign has been centered on pledges to increase taxes on the wealthy in order to provide expanded social services for low-income New Yorkers, like free public buses and rent freezes for stabilized tenants, and Mamdani argued those are policies that benefit all New Yorkers.

“Sometimes I’ve been frustrated by the way in which people think cost of living is a young person’s issue, because what I’ve actually found time and again is that cost of living is affecting every single New Yorker, no matter their age,” he said.

That part of Mamdani’s message went over well with some of the seniors in the room.

A woman who only identified herself as Cenie offered Mamdani a rose as a jokeful reference to the “Golden Bachelor” TV show, which the mayoral candidate’s campaign recently spoofed in a television ad.

“Would you accept a rose to represent us?” Cenie said to applause from the room.

“Yes, thank you,” he replied.

While she remained undecided on how to vote, Lipscomb, the retired city worker, voiced agreement with the central theme of Mamdani’s campaign message.

“They cut everything for the poor people. When are you going to cut for the rich who already have, who can afford it?” she said when asked what she’s looking for in a mayoral candidate. “It’s like there’s always the attack on the less fortunate, and that’s what gets me.”

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