It's part of a new painting course that will be taught by David Voros, an assistant professor of art, who received an instructional innovation grant from the provost's office to get it started.

"It seemed to me that USC has the perfect settings for such a course along the coast," said Voros, who was a visiting artist in residence at Kendall College of Art and Design and an adjunct faculty member at the School of Art Institute in Chicago prior to his appointment at USC. Voros' wife, Pam Bowers, also is a painter and is an adjunct faculty member in the art department.

USC's coastal landscapes course will be offered in the first summer session, and students will ply their painting skills on Pritchards Island near Beaufort and at the Baruch Institute's field site near Georgetown. Acclaimed landscape painters from other institutions will assist Voros as guest instructors.

"A big focus of the course will be on interdisciplinary studies," Voros said. "In addition to painting, students will look at selections in literature and film that focus on the landscape, and we'll likely use Barbara Novak's Nature and Culture as one of our texts."

Students also will keep journals to capture their experiences and of the processes involved in capturing on canvas a coastal landscape.

"You can paint a landscape from a photograph, but the experience of being outdoors immersed in the landscape, getting muddy and all the rest, gives you a much deeper understanding and much more to communicate," Voros said.

"Everyone will be experiencing the same environment–the same pleasantness and unpleasantness–and sharing that with others in the course."