Currently in her third and final year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at the National Art School in Sydney, Caitlin is proud to showcase her hometown and, potentially, broaden some minds through the power of her art.

"Growing up in a coal mining family is like any other," Caitlin said.

Her father Bruce Graham has worked as an electrician at Centennial for over 40 years.

"It's not something different or weird in the Lithgow region. People here are open and receptive to coal mining and happy that it is there to provide employment for families and support the local and Australian economy," she said.

Cailtin grew up in the Wallerawang area, attending St Patrick's School for primary school and La Salle Academy for high school. After graduating in 2019, she was accepted to the National Art School to pursue her passion.

"I have always been arty and crafty, constantly collecting boxes and supplies to inspire creation since a young age," she said.

"When I was in high school my passion for art really started to take off. I chose to do Visual Arts for my HSC and placed equal first in the Bathurst diocese.

"My major work, which was almost five metres long and 60 centimetres wide, was a ball point pen drawing of Dante's Inferno. It was nominated for Art Express, an exhibition for the best HSC artworks in the state."

After completing modules in printmaking, painting, ceramics, photo media and sculpture, Caitlin elected to focus on printmaking for her Fine Arts degree, alongside core Art History and Theory, and Drawing courses.

"We were taught etching, relief (lino-cut), screen printing, digital printmaking, lithography, cyanotypes and book arts," she said.

"I fell in love with lino-cut relief printing and focused on it for my final project of the year. I enjoy the challenge of creating different textures and defining different parts of an image in a black and white format. I love the satisfaction of only getting to see the final image in the very last stage: printing.

"You don't know what an image will turn out like until you've actually printed it, and this is very exciting."

A selection of Caitlin's lino-cut reliefs was exhibited at Gang Gang Gallery, including one depicting her coal mining father and, more broadly, Lithgow's coal mining and industrial heritage. Centennial has purchased Caitlin's portrait of Bruce Graham, Conveyor Gantry CP01, to hang in the company's corporate head office in Sydney.

"Almost everyone who saw the exhibition was drawn to this work because it is something we don't often see in the art world, or see portrayed in a positive light anywhere in the current political climate," she said.

"Locals seemed to really enjoy seeing something they are so familiar with in an artistic context.

"This year, I want to keep creating work highlighting different parts of the industry, showing its essentiality; how it impacts local communities and all of Australia. Alongside this, I want to look at the natural wonders and sights from my region, and at the contrasts and similarities between nature and industry and how they affect each other."

Caitlin intends on finishing her Fine Arts degree and aspires to become a practicing artist and, one day, an art and mathematics high school teacher.

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