Natalie D'Arbeloff

Originally published in 2004-2005 as comic strips on "Blaugustine", Natalie d'Arbeloff's blog. Dialogues between the persistent and inquisitive Augustine and a laid-back tee-shirted God in bold, brightly coloured cartoons which probe age-old philosophical questions in a light-hearted but thought-provoking manner.

This Augustine is a comic philosopher, a philosophical comic, a relentless self-investigator, a woman in unrequited love with the mysterious 'Judge'. Her True Confession is a journal of a private world where interwoven words and images combine to create a powerful sense of immediacy.

A well-devised and illustrated handbook which tells you what you can do with collage, whether it be a hobby or a principal interest. Helpful experiments are given and there is inspiration from examples of the work of artists specialising in the medium.

In about thirty startling black and white drawings with collage, Natalie d'Arbeloff creates the sense of a powerful current sweeping through the book, the words sometimes floating up, magnified, sometimes completely submerged but still present beneath the surface. Rather than being an illustrated Revelation, d'Arbeloff's version is a bold attempt to capture the experience of seeing these devastating visions as the Prophet himself might have experienced them. While remaining faithful to the text, the artist takes some liberties with it, repeating certain words or re-arranging them on the page within the images.

Seven love poems with seven etchings and relief prints by Natalie d'Arbeloff, hand printed by her. NdA Press 1980. Limited edition of fifteen copies plus one special copy bound in vellum. The text is engraved with a power tool on metal plates.

The artist/author Natalie d'Arbeloff carries out a series of visual experiments, taking four subjects - water, a pineapple, the hand, eggs - and focuses total attention on each in turn, as if seeing them for the first time. The photographer Ted Sebley provides striking pictures of the subjects and of d'Arbeloff drawings and technical explorations. In the introduction to the book, she says: ' I ask the reader to accompany me on my exploration of a different approach to concentration: an opening out and relaxing of the attention, allowing it to play freely with any idea which hovers in the vicinity of the chosen subject."

“AN ARTIST'S WORKBOOK is personal... in the sense that it reflects the writer's own processes of thought and ... in that it seeks to stimulate the reader to discover his own problems and find his own solutions in a truly creative manner. If he then goes on to create his own 'workbook' he will surely, as Paul Klee puts it, 'add more spirit to the seen, but...also make secret visions visible..." ( from Michael Moulder review in CANVAS magazine).