The Timepiece - Avantasia's The Mystery of Time

I've loved symphonic power heavy metal since I was in junior high school. And with their songs filled with themes of fantasy and science fiction, bands like Iron Maiden, Savatage, Black Sabbath, Kamelot, Stratovarius, Gamma Ray and Avantasia were always my favorite. Fast forward to art collecting 30 years later: never did I imagine I would get the chance to own the cover art for one of my all-time favorite bands. They're just so hard to come by...and are usually prohibitively expensive when they are for sale. But today, it actually happened! This is Rodney Matthew's original artwork for the rock opera "The Mystery of Time" by German singer Tobias Sammet’s super group Avantasia, released by Nuclear Blast in 2013. I purchased the preliminary drawing just a couple months ago from Rodney because I figured I'd never have the opportunity to own the final painting. However, the stars aligned this past weekend and I was actually able to make it happen. I couldn't be more pleased. This is a grail piece in every sense of the word. I had to part with one of my favorite pieces to make it happen, but it was so worth it.

I just learned that the image will soon be a available as a 500 piece puzzle sold by Plastic Head Distribution.

Pigmented inks on artboard
13.75" x 27.5"