Unlike other famous sculptors that have stood the test of time and whose work now litters art galleries the world over, much of Andy Goldsworthy's art won't be on display hundreds of years to come. Not because it's rubbish, or because it fails to leave a lasting impression, but because it simply doesn't last - full stop.

Goldsworthy's work is ephemeral. It is made from nature, in nature, and is destroyed by nature at nature's own pace.

From precariously stacked round stones in wilderness streams, to giant snowballs imported from Scotland and deposited around the grey streets of midsummer London, Goldsworthy has created many sculptures that will not endure, except for in memory and photography.

He's not averse to gallery installations, but these exhibitions also often reflect a sense of impermanence: clay floors - which, when heated, crack to give the appearance of a dried riverbed - are immoveable, just as stone scatterings are impossible to recreate in exactly the same way twice.

Thus once the show is finished, so is the sculpture. In that way Goldsworthy's art continues, even in artificial environments, to retain a natural lifespan, destined for disappearance or alteration.

But the beauty of his work is not only its manipulation of nature - a battle the artist cannot win since nature always has the overriding vote in how the sculpture will weather and change - but also how it draws attention to the other manmade elements in the natural world: sheep wool caught on a barbed wire fence; moss growing on a dry stone wall; cairns on the mountain side - and their own intrinsic beauty.

It's also evocative of the things people seem drawn to do in the outdoors: skimming stones, picking up branches for walking sticks, removing pebbles, sand or shells as souvenirs and leaving footprints as transient markings on the land.

Goldsworthy is so appealing because his work reflects a relationship with the earth that is central to being human - to mark it, to change it briefly, and ultimately to become part of it.

His retrospective at Yorkshire Sculpture Park will be a combination of work outdoors and inside the gallery. But, dodging the conventions of usual retrospectives, most of the artwork will be brand new.

There is an archival element to give it some context - through sketchbooks and photography which document his work - but, due to the transient nature of his work, only one outdoor piece, 3 Arches, is on loan from older stock.

The outdoor sculptures will remain in the park, subject to nature's altering influence, but the indoor work will, at the exhibition's end, be dismantled and removed. Valuable materials, like stone and timber and slate, will most likely be taken back to the studio and reused for new work.

But, even when recreating a piece with a similar theme - say a cairn or an igloo-like dome - no two creations are ever the same.

View the Goldsworthy picture gallery here.

And Goldsworthy's retrospective is at Yorkshire Sculpture Park from 31 Mar 2007 to 6 Jan 2008.