The Cover of Two By Two Souls Fly from Achronal Press

Two By Two Souls Fly cover art by Alessandra Kelley

As with nearly all of my cover paintings, the art for Two By Two Souls Fly is a large egg tempera on panel.

This painting depicts the central hill on the farm of the family in the novel, the Well clan, of the village of Yrary in the kingdom of Hracza. They are a family of farmers and horse breeders in a world of magic and gods. There have been times of epic quests and mighty heroes, but not here, not now. This is the story of a lifelong romance in a little village in a fantasy world.

The well the clan is named for is at the top of a hill. If you go straight up the hill the well is a well and you may get water for everyday needs. If you take the sevenfold spiral path around the hill, the well becomes a magical pool of prophecy and heavenly wisdom.

The novel covers an entire generation of family life, with its loves, frustrations, hopes, heartbreak, and sweetness. I painted the hill to show the heart of the family involved, with the horses which are its wealth and its magic running at the base.

Egg tempera is an ancient technique, used at least as far back as the classical Greeks and Romans (Pliny mentions it, and there are surviving egg tempera Egyptian portraits dating from the Greek Ptolemys). It's a simple medium, of pigments, egg yolk (which, contrary to common belief, does not color the paint yellow), and water. Complete instructions can be found at my teaching and art website.

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