I painted “Southern Sea Fairies” on a small canvas a year after painting the original and I used a brighter and purer palette to convey lightness and innocence. Mythologies in other parts of the world hold that the Siren is a creature that only leads sailors astray, stranding or even bringing about their demise with her beautiful singing voice, but in my work my fairies are more innocent and only seek to play with the seaweed that’s stirred up by the large waves of the Indian Ocean. Thinking of the natural world as more innocent and pure may be an oriental quality.”