George Wendell Baker

Metaphoria

Metaphoria are a series of allegorical oil paintings exploring myth, perception, and symbolic transformation. Poetic and philosophical echoes accompany each piece, inviting a deeper gaze. Drawing on classical motifs and metaphysical themes, the gallery moves between Jungian archetype and imaginative vision.

“Only boldness can deliver from fear. And if the risk is not taken, the meaning of life is somehow violated...” – C.G. Jung

Nocturne – oil painting of a reclining nude woman and raven in a dreamlike sky, symbolic of the unconscious, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Metaphysical figurative art by Canadian artist George Wendell Baker
Nocturne
“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” - Edgar Allan Poe - Oil on Canvas 72 x 90 cm
The Fates, symbolic oil painting of Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos in classical myth, Metaphysical figurative painting of three female figures weaving threads of fate – the Moirai, Greek Fates series by George Wendell Baker
The Fates
"Man's fate is his character." - Heraclitus (Clotho, Lachesis & Atropos) - Oil on Canvas 90 x 115 cm - *(Mod. Credits: Below)
Luna – oil painting of a moonlit female figure in blue tones, inspired by Gurdjieff’s teachings on the moon as a metaphysical force. Dreamlike symbolic portrait by Canadian artist George Wendell Baker
Luna
"Moonlit enchantments of jealous lunar appetites." - Beckon - Oil on Canvas 72 x 90 cm
Labyrinth – symbolic oil painting by George Wendell Baker featuring the Minotaur and mythic feminine figures in a classical setting. A metaphor for the inner journey and confrontation with shadow.
Labyrinth
"Every labyrinth has its minotaur" - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Oil on Canvas - 80 x 100 cm *(Mod. credits: Below)
Yaldabaoth – symbolic Gnostic oil painting by George Wendell Baker depicting the demiurge as a false creator, with mythic feminine figures confronting oppressive cosmic authority.
Yaldabaoth
"What, if some day a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' - Nietzsche - Oil on Canvas 80 x 100 cm
Aeon Sophia – symbolic oil painting by George Wendell Baker portraying the sacred feminine in Gnostic myth; a vision of divine wisdom and fallen light embodied with earthy grace.
Aeon Sophia
"Trees are not known for their leaves, nor even by their blossoms, but by their fruit." - Eleanor of Aquitaine - Oil on canvas 72 x 90 cm
Plato’s Cave – oil painting by George Wendell Baker exploring illusion, confinement, and awakening, inspired by soul trap theory and simulation metaphysics.
Plato's Cave
"Bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light.” Plato - Oil on Canvas 80cm x 100 cm
Oculus – metaphysical oil painting by George Wendell Baker evoking psychic surveillance, subconscious influence, and the illusion of self-generated thought; a symbolic expression of inner control structures.
Oculus
"We come to believe that we are our thoughts" - Jasun Horsley - Oil on Canvas 72 x 90 cm *(Mod. credits: Below)
Nefarious Theatre – allegorical oil painting by George Wendell Baker exploring manipulation, performance, and social control through ritualized figures and symbolic gestures. Themes evoke surveillance, secrecy, and the silent complicity of spectacle.
Nefarious Theatre
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Leonardo da Vinci - Oil on Canvas 90 x 115 cm -
Punki Tomo No. 8, expressive figurative oil painting by George Wendell Baker, part of a series exploring modern archetypes and spiritual confrontation.
Punki Tomo No. 8
“In Japanese culture, there is a belief that God is everywhere - in mountains, trees, rocks, even in our sympathy for robots or hello kitty toys.” — Ryuichi Sakamoto - Oil on canvas 90 x 115 cm
Mademoiselle Rouge – aesthetic figurative oil painting by George Wendell Baker classical poise with a Gothic undercurrent. A portrait of vivid feminine autonomy set against a stark white field.
Mademoiselle Rouge
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” - Mary Shelley - Oil on Paper 57 x 76 cm *(Mod. credits: Below)
Koenji Tokyo” – expressive figurative oil painting by George Wendell Baker , portraying two young women in a Japanese urban subculture scene. An homage to punk energy, feminine defiance, and the raw beauty of self-styled rebellion.
Koenji Tokyo
“Living in a world such as this is like dancing on a live volcano.” - Kentetsu Takamori -Oil on Canvas 80 x 100 cm
Lampads: Leuke & Orphnê — mythological oil painting by George Wendell Baker , depicting underworld torchbearers in a scene of haunting sensuality. A reflection on the tension between classical beauty and the modern commodification of desire, framed before a symbolic black gate.
Lampads: Leuke & Orphne
"Gossip is mischievous, light and easy to raise, but grievous to bear and hard to get rid of." - Hesiod - Oil on Canvas 80 x 115 cm *(Mod. credits: Below)
Inculcations XIX — allegorical oil painting by George Wendell Baker critiquing pandemic-era propaganda and psychological manipulation. Featuring masked nurse-figures in dominatrix garb, the work evokes themes of control, trauma, and the inversion of care.
Inculcations XIX
“But the existence of a cult does not mean that images appropriate to it automatically follow.” - Robert Hughes - Oil on Canvas 90 x 115 cm
Stheno — myth-inspired figurative painting by George Wendell Baker reimagining Medusa’s sister as an alluring, enigmatic woman. The work subverts the monstrous archetype, hinting at hidden knowledge and feminine power through symbolic posture and gaze.
Stheno
"The world whispers secrets, it's up to you to listen." - Medusa - Oil on Canvas 72 x 80 cm
A nude male figure sits contemplatively on a block beneath a circular disc, his hands poised like clock hands at 12:25. The stark background and symbolic geometry suggest themes of reincarnation, spiritual captivity, and the illusion of linear time Oil painting by George Wendell Baker
Metempsychosis: 12:25
“And I entered into the midst of their prison, which is the prison of their body.” - Apocryphon of John - Oil on Canvas 80 x 115 cm
A prophet figure sits collapsed amid a devastated landscape, while a second figure gestures upward. This allegorical oil painting by George Wendell Baker explores the burden of foresight, the agony of truth, and the collapse of illusions in a fallen world.
Sibyl
“The most distressing thing that can happen to a prophet is to be proved wrong; the next most distressing thing is to be proved right.” - Aldous Huxley - Oil on Canvas 120 x 120 cm
Diptych oil painting by George Wendell Baker , portraying the Meliai—primordial ash-tree nymphs—and evoking Epinoia, the divine remembrance. Rich in symbolic foliage and grounded myth, the work offers a Gnostic lens on nature’s sentience and soul.
Meliai: Epinoia
"Cast not pearls ... " Matthew 7:6 - Meliai—born of earth and myth. She~ in anticipation of Epinoia—the whisper of divine remembrance. - Dyptic / Oil on Canvas -115 x 170 cm
A cloaked woman in black gazes outward, draped in mourning on a raw linen with gold-hued marked with a halo. A symbolic meditation on memory, sacrifice, and the cost of war. Oil painting by George Wendell Baker
For Glory or War II – Sancta Bellum
“The living will envy the dead.” — Dostoevsky She looks back through time, haloed not by heaven but by memory. Here is not a call to arms, but a requiem for those silenced beneath the rhetoric of glory. Oil on Raw Linen (unstretched) 78 × 100 cm
A young woman cloaked in black kneels beside a headstone, holding a child. Set against raw linen, the image conveys grief, memory, and the invisible cost of war. Oil painting by George Wendell Baker
For Glory or War I – Sancta Bellum
“War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” — Bertrand Russell. The raw linen hangs as testament—scarred, unprimed, refusing to forget. She kneels— not saint, but witness. The wound of absence made visible. Oil on Raw Linen (unstretched) 78 × 100 cm
A child in red stands before four stampeding horses emerging from shadow, evoking the apocalypse while at the forefront as four spectral warhorses charge from darkness. The scene evokes judgment, loss, and the mystical innocence caught in the path of destruction. Oil painting by George Wendell Baker
Clades Belli
“The sleep of reason produces monsters.” - Francisco De Goya - "When the wise are silent, the madmen rule." Euripides - "For thy merchants were the great men of the earth; by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." Revelation 18:23 - Oil on Canvas 80 x 116 cm

 

* (Much thanks: Lovelifedrawing / SketchDaily / Croquis Cafe / GRAFIT / Mjranum /Mervilina)

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