‘Mary Queen of Scots’ (1967) is an epic mythopoetic work, which invokes the historical figure not as mere portrait but as archetype and martyr against symbols of church and state. The painting includes figures of Mary Queen of Scots, depicted with a braid in her hair and her head on the chopping block as well as her antagonist John Knox. Also featured are an abstracted lion, perhaps representing Mary’s bravery and a spirited figure. The work is exemplary of Gibbons’ paintings having their own ‘logic’ and ‘atmosphere’ within formal explorations of colour, surface and uncanny pictorial organisation. The unique frame was made by the artist and is integral to the work’s composition. For this painting, she repurposed an old canvas to make the new painting.