Yorkshire | Poppies Tour - Wave at Wakefield YSP

The Yorkshire Sculpture park in Wakefield is full of a life time of family memories for me, I would consider it to be one of my happy places. 

It has changed a lot even over my lifetime but if anything it has just got bigger, but there is a few things missing that I remember seeing as a child, and the reason for this is that installations come and go. 

Giant Rabbit sculpture is a constant feature 

There has been some fabulous visiting sculptures over the last few years and now that YSP is getting awards it seems to be in scope to get more exciting artists and is considered to be an 'Open air gallery'.

Last week I visited the most popular attraction that I think YSP has had in a while, part of the Poppies Tour that were originally shown at The Tower of London earlier in the year called 'Wave'. 

It is a smaller volume and displayed in a slightly different way but this attracted over 20k visitors in its first weekend in September.

The #PoppiesTour is at YSP until early January so I am sure as the seasons are changing from Autumn to Winter that the park itself will change from my photographs.

I had a rare Friday off from work last week so I decided to jump at the chance of visiting on a 'quieter' day compared to the weekend.

If you haven't been to the sculpture park before, it's a great day out as the majority is outside but it does have some interior galleries too. It was the perfect warm and sunny autumnal day so I decided to ditch my coat and just accessorise up with my tartan scarf... I didn't even need that it was super HOT and no clouds in sight!

There are 2 entrances to the park, we opted for the Lower Car Park and it does cost the same money at both car parks (wasn't like that a few years ago) but they do not charge for entry so paying per vehicle doesn't seem too steep approx £6 for 5 hours. 

The poppies are around 15 minute walk from both car parks so I would say it doesn't necessarily matter where you park but if you are a first time visitor I would suggest the top main car park as you will benefit from the gift shop, cafe and interior galleries first then you can pick up a map to find your way.

Miss K in Mulberry scarf, Ray Ban Erica's and of course my usual denim shirt

It was a lovely walk from the car park to the poppies with lots of sculptures to observe on your way. 

You can see here what looks like bales of hay by Helen Escobedo called 'Summer Fields' made from what I think is 2 cylinders of mesh in red and yellow to give the illusion, you can't see but there was around 20 sheep sitting under the tree on the right, taking some shade as it was such a lovely day. Look at that sky!? (Great YSP review from a few years ago)

Love this bridge!

This tree refuses to acknowledge the change in season yet

My parents joined me on my poppy adventure they are the best

You do get a map, but I liked the touch of adding the poppy signs so you didnt get lost

Surrounded by tree's I never get bored of looking up at the mix of colours

It took just over 15 minutes to get to where the poppies were as I get distracted looking at the animals and sculptures on the way. There was a lot of people there even for a Friday lunchtime who also wanted to get close, take photos and touch them.

The sun was beaming (maybe in the wrong direction) which meant I couldn't get a clear image that really showed how red the poppies really were on the lead up.

I managed to squeeze through in order to take some pics, but I have to be honest if it was any busier, I probably would have been in for a short wait to even get close by. 

Next has to be one of the best photos I took where you can see the old teaching college 'Bretton' in the background, you can now also see how red they were and they felt a bit like leather but they are actually ceramic. 

Favourite pic that I took

Couldn't get close enough to get a photo with the poppies
so this is from the opposite side of the bridge

We stopped around 20 minutes around the poppies which was long enough, there wasn't loads to see but it was interesting to see close up how the installation had been made. 

I bumped into some good friends there too so it was lovely to catch up, its amazing you can go at a random time on a day I would normally be at work and still bump into someone you know... bonus! 

If you read my post about the Angel of the North you will like the next sculpture from Anthony Gormley 'One and Other' standing tall, I really like his style and this was made from the same material as the Angel - rusted iron.

As the park is so large you don't ever need to walk the same way twice, so we walked back through the park so I could stand on some crunchy leaves and pretend I was 5 again.

We loved this galloping horse installation which was viewable on both sides

Inspired by a Taxi Meter in Korea and a currency exchange board this moving LED horse was created by Julian Opie. 

This was my Dad's favourite piece of the day.

Hope you enjoyed this photographic post, I would recommend visiting the #PoppiesTour I believe they are moving to Liverpool next year so if this is a bit out of your way, there maybe another opportunity to visit them. 

Even if you do not get to visit before January, I can highly recommend the YSP for a family day out all year round for lots of walking and plenty of space to picnic, there is always a variety of sculptures.

Yorkshire Sculpture park is approx 3 minutes drive from the M1 near Wakefield.

Love Miss K xx

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