The women in Flannigan’s Femme Fatales are portraits created from the artist's imagination. Rather than depicting individuals, they represent toxic stereotypes of women and each portrait is named after a poisonous plant: belladonna (commonly known as deadly nightshade), foxglove, scarlet pimpernel, anemone and lily.

Flannigan’s work is often dark and ironic, and draws on the past to represent fictional women in a modern context. She challenges the way in which woman have traditionally been represented in art – often nude, from a male viewpoint, and for a male audience. In Flannigan’s portraits the costumes form a key part of each woman’s identity, revealing the influence of film, fashion and popular culture on her work. 

“I would say that I am very consciously trying to challenge stereotypes of female representation in painting.”  

Moyna Flannigan, 2014, speaking about her work for GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland. 

Although primarily training as a painter, Flannigan has also explored printmaking in her early career in the late 80's and early 90's, working predominately in stone lithography. In 2000, she was invited by Edinburgh Printmakers to work with Alastair Clark to create a series of works exploring new imagery in her artistic practice. This series of 5 lithographs were produced and published by Edinburgh Printmakers in signed limited editions.