BA (Hons) P.G.C.E PGCert
Creativity
Something happens when we allow process. We breathe in a different kind of way and can often discover a depth of insight, connection and awareness that can be lost when we hurry towards a destination. For me, creativity has always served as a way to explore my interior world and life journey. A way of checking in, noticing, being present to what is and what's unfolding. It is a prayerful space - one that helps me express what's true, what's felt, and what needs to be said. It's also a time to hear and be heard.
Christopher Small beautifully writes 'Art is more than the production of beautiful or even expressive images for others to contemplate or admire, but essentially a means by which we explore our inner and outer worlds, and learn to live with them.' If you would like to explore how art and creativity can be used to help you in your own formational journey please feel free to contact me.
Below you will see a collection of images that are the markings of my processes. If you would like to purchase any of these pieces they are available as digital prints. Just contact me with the name of the print (see image) and I will be glad to help.
Where You are Not
For it is not knowing much that fills and satisfies the soul, but feeling and savouring things interiorly. St. Ignatius of Loyola
Where You Are Not captures movements of contemplative prayer, anchored by John 14:20: ‘I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.’
Offering a cartography of the interior landscape, this print gathers elements created through contemplative layering of graphite, wax, ink and charcoal, tracing movement from interior noise towards loving gaze, surrender, colloquy and consolation.
There is no part of me
seen or unseen
where You are not.
No place too dark.
No place too hidden.
In the moments
when You seem not enough,
illuminate
and call to
the part of me
yet to receive Your love.
Sam Whiley
I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
John 14
Sam Whiley | Words & Mixed Media 2026
In This, Too
In This, Too offers three images for contemplation, arising from John 14:20: ‘I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.’
The original images emerged during contemplative prayer, using layers of graphite, wax, ink, charcoal and gold. In the final image, digital enhancement reveals more of the underlying layers. Across the three images, the surrounding field shifts while the gold remains.
The work invites a slow, repeated gaze: to return, notice again, and remain with what is present. Rather than suggesting movement from absence into presence, each image holds the possibility of presence already here — within darkness, uncertainty, and illumination. A contemplation and invitation: to notice what changes, what remains, and where presence might already be found.
Point of Savour
Indwelling
Sam Whiley | Mixed Media 2026
Few Straight Lines
I would love to live
Like a river flows,
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding
Fluent | John O'Donohue
Few Straight Lines | Sam Whiley | MIxed Media 2023
Harvesting
Harvesting the delights, gifts, and surprises of the past season. Savouring and treasuring moments of laughter and joy. Noticing and naming the challenges - the moments that have stretched and sharpened, the struggles that become treasured. Autumn, an invitation to let go of the compulsions and entrapments that grip. Loosening my clutch in prayer, learning to let go and make space for what is to come.
Noticing the Year | Sam Whiley | Mixed Media 2023
Liminality
Give me the resolution to say “no” to the good so that I will be ready to give my “yes” to the better
Give me the courage to keep living in the open-endedness of the future without foreclosing the mysterious work of your Spirit in my haste or fear.
Give me the persistence to stay in the wilderness of unknowing until I am ready to receive your call.
Give me the strength to keep still & waiting when all about me is pushing towards movement activity & choice.
Give me the acceptance to live these days in uneventfulness, simplicity & hiddenness, without craving excitement, distraction or change.
Give me the grace to live in the emptiness of not doing without the rewards of achievement, fulfilment or success.
Give me the wisdom to discriminate between my own impatience to move forward & your Spirit’s deep stirring of my spirit when the time is right to move.
Give me the faith to trust in your obscurity, the obedience to stay faithful to your mystery, the courage to keep tryst with your inscrutability.
Prayer for the waiting time | Nichola Slee
Liminality | Sam Whiley | Mixed Media 2022
Tumultuous Seas
“This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.
Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.
If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.”
John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us
Sam Whiley | Mixed Media 2022
All Shall be Well
'All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well'
~ Julian of Norwich
May I know colour, play, and peace in the eye of the storm. May I welcome and trust you, who offers rest and comfort in pain, chaos and impermanence.
Finding What Matters | Sam Whiley | Acrylics on Canvas 2021
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Hope Takes Flight
Art Installation
Inspired by artist Michael Pendrey, this community art installation invited the people of Trowbridge Town to reflect on life during COVID-19 and the moments they wanted to remember, lament, cherish, and celebrate. Each person was invited to reflect on their hopes, prayers, dreams, and desires for the future. These reflections were captured on paper and crafted into doves. Each dove contains moments of remembrance and future dreams.
Sam Whiley | Emmanuel's Yard | Trowbridge | Wiltshire | 2020
Bits n Bobs
A small selection
