Yorkshire Sculpture Park...

Spent yesterday (the first day of UK daylight saving) at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This entailed a drive south down the M1 (is there a speed limit???) to a glorious country parkland and gardens landscaped in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Sculpture Park was established in 1977 and is today billed as 'the only one of its kind in Europe' (though there are certainly other outdoor sculpture venues in Europe - I recall one in Oslo...). The Park positions itself as 'a centre of excellence in the display, creation and study of sculpture and art in the landscape'.

It was a day that invited many photographs!  One of the main featured sculptors was Peter Randall-Page who was exhibiting such rounded organic forms as these...

Amongst my favourites were Taiwanese Ju Ming's works that took inspiration from Tai Chi...

Jonathan Borofsky's Molecule Man 1+1+1 made a splendid statement amongst the trees...

...while this Henry Moore was probably my favourite for its sinuous elegance and sheer joy...

There were so many delights...

James Turrell's Skyspace located in the Deer Shelter, brought the sky down to just above head-height and engaged viewers with the changing sky and light-scape, while the interior windows of the YSP Centre had been transformed to cast whimsical shadows on the walkway...

The park was full of families having a day out. I had the best piece of carrot cake ever in the cafe and lingered longingly around the excellent YSP design shop.

Other things that impressed me - excellent provision (in a difficult location) for disabled people; dogs were allowed; the wonderful exhibition connected to the Stone Project; beautiful works that it was impossible to do justice to with my basic camera and photography skills; the variety of innovative indoor as well as outdoor exhibition spaces; informative brochures... I thought about Sculpture on the Peninsula and that fact that it could morph into a permanent exhibition site not unlike YSP albeit on a smaller scale.