Peter Caddy La Loire now showing at Art Partners Australia, Albury

"Having always had a foot in France and a foot in Australia, being a landscape artist the works encompass either Australian or French landscapes depending on where I am," he said.

His latest exhibition is now showing in Albury but features the Loire Valley in central France, where Caddy spent most of 2020.

"As soon as I left (Australia) the doors slammed shut globally, really, so I lived in isolation doing the landscapes," he said.

"Lucky for me I had work which was a pleasure but also a singular activity. I'm grateful to have had good satisfying work during the pandemic."

When in Australia, Caddy is often based in Beechworth and has lived there and before that in Stanley for 30 years but also has French nationality.

"I think it's equal love of both and the complete difference culturally," he said when describing his dual-country lifestyle.

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La Loire comprises about 30 pieces and is coloured, figuratively speaking, by the context of the coronavirus crisis.

"Living on the Loire River, there are quite a number of sinking boats," he said.

"There were floods earlier in the year as well, so I witnessed a lot of quite dramatic flooding and that features in the exhibition.

"You've got that sort of strange symbolism of inundation, but also inundation in terms of a country being swamped, overwhelmed if you will, by what was happening socially and environmentally with the pandemic."

Caddy said even in the past week, a neighbour had told him France was still recording more than 20,000 new COVID-19 cases a day.

"It's been a very difficult country to be in, but I was lucky to be able to leave in the new year and come back with my artworks from there," he said.

Caddy has no immediate plans to return to France at this stage but "I'm watching the situation carefully".

Peter Caddy's exhibition La Loire can be seen at Art Partners Australia, 488 David Street, Albury, 10am to 4pm, until Sunday, May 9.

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