Frosty Morning Analysis

A myriad of different elements can be found in artwork. This reigns true for Frosty Morning by Fred Shane, who was a regionalist and muralist. It is an American painting created in 1939. Frosty Morning is oil on canvas laid on masonite that currently resides in Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, Alabama. The prominent elements and principles of design in Frosty Morning consist of forms and rhythm.

The element of form comes from three-dimensional shapes. Forms portray a wide variety of different meanings and symbols. In Fred Shane’s Frosty Morning, the form of a pyramid is employed. The pyramid comes in the form of a haystack in this artwork. Pyramids symbolize many things, however, in this case it is utilized to portray a system of

An assortment of different elements can be employed to convey rhythm. In Frosty Morning lines and shading are used to show this. One aspect of the painting that implements these elements is the grass throughout the fields. The use of lines tracking towards the same direction is one aspect of showing movement in the grass. The second aspect is the shading of grass. The lighter portions of the grass portray that it is facing more towards the sun, while the darker portions are facing away from it. This gives notion as to which direction the grass is moving as well. The element of shading to illustrate rhythm is also used in the smoke billowing from the chimney of the country home in the distance. The use of shading the smoke in darker and lighter sections allows an observer to distinguish which direction it is moving. This is based on the fact that the lighter portions of smoke have dissipated more than the darker portions, thus showing the direction based on where the concentration is greatest. The title of the piece of art is Frosty Morning, which tells that it is cold. Together, the movement of the grass and smoke also aids in further implementing the weather setting. By showing movement in the grass and smoke, it portrays wind blowing, which is often associated with cold weather. Combined, these two elements of movement are a major component of setting the overall tone of this work of