INFORMATION

Yorkshire Sculpture Park is at West Bretton, Wakefield

Poppies: Wave is on display until January 10. Festive events take place throughout December.

Call (01924) 832631, email info@ysp.co.uk or visit ysp.co.uk

IT'S a short drive from the M1, but Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a world away from the mayhem of daily modern life.

It's such a lovely, serene place you could lose yourself there for a whole day without noticing the time passing.

The only site of its kind, it blends art and nature so beautifully that the lines become blurred. Wherever you roam there are stunning vistas of the parkland landscape and surrounding Bretton Country Park. Particularly striking is the panoramic hilltop view from the Bothy, once the estate's kitchen garden.

The park is set in 500 acres of the historic Bretton Hall estate, which passed to the Wentworth family in the 14th century. King Henry VIII is said to have stayed in the old hall. The present building was constructed around 1720 by Sir William Wentworth, a playboy who sailed a huge yacht on the lake. The grounds were developed in the early 19th century, with the River Dearne dammed to form two lakes. The hall was sold to West Riding County Council in 1947.

The sculpture park opened in 1977 as a "gallery without walls". Today it's a renowned international centre for modern and contemporary art with open-air displays by some of the world's leading artists as well as four galleries of exhibitions, including one underground. There are over 100 works on display.

The main attraction lately has been Wave, part of the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation at the Tower of London, now on a UK tour. A total of 5,000 ceramic poppies rise from the lower lake as a poignant reminder of the loss of life in the First World War.

We enjoyed a tour of the park led by Thom Butler, who revealed snippets about its history and the great art on display.

The park is synonymous with Yorkshire sculptor Henry Moore, whose abstract figures appear around the site. His reclining figures, with their undulating forms, look as though they're sculpted into the landscape.

Another highlight is Barbara Hepworth's Family of Man, her last piece of work before her death. This is the only place in the world where you can see it on a hillside which was, Thom said, how she wanted it displayed.

In the distance, between trees, we spied a huge colourful Buddha, then in the lower park we encountered two mesmerising Sophie Ryder works, Crawling and Sitting, drawing on human, animal and mythological themes. Sophie also has figures in Bradford's Lister Park.

Ten Seated Figures, by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, is a post-war sculpture; as childlike as it is sinister, with headless, armless figures sitting in a row, legs dangling.

There was more sculpture, including a fountain, in the Camellia House, a lovely romantic structure filled with flora.

Passing an Anthony Gormley figure high on a tree stump, a tinkling sound filled the air. Thom led us to Caroline Lock's Frequency of Trees, a series of tuning forks tuned to tree frequency, measuring the times a branch or leaf moves within a set time frame. Visitors are invited to strike the tuning forks.

Thom had been up since dawn, leading a 'sunrise experience' in James Turrell’s Deer Shelter Skyspace. Subtle lighting inside the 18th century shelter, built into a quarry, creates a heightened vision of the sky through an open space. Hidden beneath open landscape, it's a lovely peaceful spot which has been the setting for Quaker meetings, concerts, Diwali sunrise festivals and an Arctic Monkeys photo-shoot.

In the chapel we watched two powerful video installations, Fire Woman and Tristan's Ascension, by American artist Bill Viola. The Underground Gallery features more Viola installations and a new work, The Trial.