McGinley understands painting to be the true and direct communication of her ideas, using pigment as a vessel for feeling. The life in the medium itself is of equal importance to the final picture generated on the canvas. Her production is centred around the body and what it means to inhabit one. Driven by the desire to create atmosphere over storytelling, McGinley aims at making the ephemeral concrete: all actions eroticised, all textures oiled. Each emotion is given space to pulsate, undulate and breathe. In turn, the figure becomes a symbol of sensation.

‘Canny Lass’ is a double self portrait that focuses on the inability to truly see, touch and know oneself. “We exist in the gaze of others and it seems that with age the closer you get to yourself, the further away it feels. Do we really want to know the most secret undesirable version of ourselves?” (Abigail McGinley). This idea expressed by McGinley is shown through the mirrored figures. The one on the right is exposed and demanding, staring at the figure on the left with their hand reaching to touch a nipple, which however is met with a softly defensive hand and a slight concealment of the face.

The conceptual framework of the painting is reinforced by the foundations it is painted on. The diptych takes place over two separate canvases, only the hands of each figure seem to creep into the adjoining pictorial frame, further instilling this will to touch but an inability to do so. The background is inspired by the Italian countryside, the brush marks of the figures are heightened by the swirling mass of leaves that seem to be enveloping them.