Roger Brown uses gradual shifts in colour to create a sense of atmospheric perspective within the flat painted surface. In 1978 he explained ‘the idea for Misty Morning came from driving through the hills of northern Alabama [U.S.A.], where it’s awfully misty in the early morning or late evening and you see the hills get lighter and lighter.’ Brown’s gradual transition from dark to lighter tones creates the illusion of depth in the landscape, of receding mountains and disappearing car headlights. The painting’s sharp style, colour palette and decorative pattern were influenced by comic books, contemporary architecture, Byzantine mosaics and late medieval painting.