Ode to Ash

‘Ode to the Ash’, by Cameron Short, is professionally hand-printed in England on natural linen. This beautiful, timeless design is suitable for both upholstery and general soft furnishings - curtains, loose covers, etc.

The imagery celebrates one of our most cherished native trees - the ash. It was created in response to the plight of this ‘Venus of the woods' (the name given to it by woodsmen of old) caused by ash dieback.

The tree stands at a crossroads in a bucolic landscape, surrounded by an array of colourful folk from days gone by - all of them related to the ash in some way. Among them is a herdsman who carries an ash stick to keep the Evil Eye away from his prize heifer, a country girl who, hoping to meet her true love, keeps an 'even ash' leaf in her glove, a coppice worker and ‘gentleman of the road’ with an ash staff, a Romany family (the littlest of them, a young boy, praying for the health of the tree) and a woodsman who kneels reverently beneath the ash’s outspread boughs (ash timber was prized by woodsmen for its strength and flexibility). Accompanying them is, as Shakespeare once wrote, a ‘paragon of animals’ - a fox, a sparrow hawk, dogs, a crow, a shrew, a cow, an owl, a swan, a horse, an adder, a guinea fowl, a badger and a butterfly. ‘Ode to the Ash’ is a wonderful mix of both English folklore and social history - with a dash of magic.

‘Ode to the Ash’ is hand-printed to order. It is available in unlimited meterage