Sutton Landscape Artists of the Year 2026

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Sutton Landscape Artist of the Year is a borough-wide competition to get our art on and showcase our talented local artists.

This was our fourth year hosting the competition in Poulter Park. And as ever our artists produced some beautiful pictures on the day.

Read on to find out more about the day, our judges and winners.

Judges and winners

We had 21 entries across 3 categories: 3-10, 11-16 and adult. Once again, our judges had a very hard time choosing just one winner and one highly commended artwork in each category. Criteria included composition, style and whether the artwork captured the spirit of the park.

Linda, Rhys and Doug having a hard time judging our 3-10 winner.

Our 2026 judges were

  • Doug Shaw, a local mixed media artist whose practice is rooted in nature and community
  • Linda, the Chair of Bishopsford House Residents Committee who’s lived in Poulter Park for 15 years and judges on ‘spirit of the park’.
  • Rhys Trussler, a fine artist from Brighton whose paintings evoke folk horror themes.

3- 10 year old category

The winner of the 3-10 category was Monica Anreytsiv with her beautiful pastel picture of the Wandle and trees on its banks. The judges enjoyed the reflection on the water and the suggestion of a face peeping out from the foliage.

Colourful pastel of a riverside reflecting on the water and the suggestion of a face peeping out from the foliage.
Monica Andreytsiv

Our highly commended pictures were by Lilah Tenmore and Puraham Pramod Kulkarni. The judges loved the use of paint in Lilah’s trees and the bold colours in Puraham’s picture of Bishopsford House.

Lilah Tenmore
Puraham Pramod Kulkarni

11 – 16 year old category

The winner of the 11 – 16 year old category was Mikolay Anreytsiv with his delicate water colour of a bridge over the Wandle.

Mikolay Anreytsiv

Our highly commended artist in the teen category was Yui Ho. The judges were impressed with her rendition of Bishopsford House, which has notoriously hard proportions to capture. Unfortunately another painting attacked Yui’s picture so it has some acrylic paint smudges. We still think her skills shine through!

Yui Ho

Adult category (17+)

The winner in our adult category was Ian Shorthouse, with a mixed media representation of Bishopsford House. They enjoyed the layered textures of the fabric and the build up of pattern and colour matched with prose poetry. We also loved the cheeky fox tail.

Mixed media representation of Bishopsford House layering acrylic paint over fabric building up pattern and colour. Some writing reads Head over to the Wandle, artist thinks what to do. The clouds are grey on Saturday. A fox has been out too.
Ian Shorthouse

Highly commended in this category went to Emma Daniel and Liz Parry.

Emma Daniel
Liz Parry

Too hard to choose!

We had an incredibly high standard of work this year and it was very hard for our judges to choose winners.

We loved Noah and Oscar’s riverside pictures. Especially the abstract tree shapes and steps on the other side of the bank. Phoebe’s dream landscape with a balloon floating through it transported us to other realms. And we enjoyed the perspective of Ethan’s layered picture of the tree-lined river path.

An abstract sculptural tree stands at the back of the composition, with foliage on the right. Two figures share a secret in the foreground.
Oscar Robinson
Blocky abstract of riverside plant life with sculptural detail of the steps on the opposite bank.
Noah Robinson
A blue sun or planet floats against a dark blue sky over an other wordly dream scape of more blues against a yellow horizon. A single red rose floats above the land, echoed by a green rose fixed to the corner of the art work.
Phoebe Williams
Murky waters flow past a line of simply rendered trees. A very blustery day by the river.
Ethan Robinson

In the adult art works we loved to see William’s dreamscape of Bishopsford House’s small building. Markina, Aryan, Laura and Kasia’s riverbanks all met the water and trees in different but equally beautiful and thoughtful compositions. Jamie and Kai’s takes on the pylon dominated skyline delighted the judges. While Manushi’s ducks on rippled water were a popular choice with the park committee. Luke and Natalia’s abstract canvas evoked the moody skies and autumn spatters of the day with great character and verve.

Pastel picture of a Bishopsford House small building with two turrets nestling among the trees and landscape
William Cheung
Delicately painted view up river of stream with water weed drifting in the middle and banks lined with trees and reeds.
Aryan Rajesh
Pen and ink drawing of Poulter Park skyline across the rugby pitch towards Croydon. Large foreshortened pylon in the foreground with a rugby goal and players underneath. Tree line extends in between the pylon and players towards more pylons further away on the right and the pitch lights silhouetted against the sky
Jamie Brewer
Haunting pencil sketch of a tree over a bend in the river with delicate rippling reflections in the water.
Kasia Jaworska
Pair of mallard ducks on swirling green water reflecting the leaves and sunlight
Manushi Shah
Pylon cables stretch across a grey sky above a hedgeline with rugby goals. A sense of racing wind and a blustery day
Kai Ho
Autumnal trees line the river bank as it follows the water round a curve. A willow heels over into the stream far right. A sense of the season's turn.
Markina Leon
Elegant ivy covered trees frame a path by the river. In the distance is a the back of a person in a mobility scooter taking their dog for a walk.
Ka Wo Laura Lam
Textural splashes of brown autumnal trees under a grey moody sky.
Luke and Natalie Mudianga Reid

Gathering Lore

As well as our art competition, we were visited by Lore, an art project mapping the Wandle’s memories and creating myth and legends.

Ava stands behind a table with long strips of paper and ink and pens. She holds a plaster hand with 3 toes and is smiling.
Ava shows us an artifact from a Lore workshop at Beddington

Participants spoke to lead artist Ava and shared their memories and impressions of our section of the Wandle. Trevor the Wandle cat featured prominently as did our local water fowl. But not in the same frame for obvious reasons.

Exhibition dates

8 parks took part in the competition this year: the Grove, Beddington, Oaks, Carshalton, Manor, Seears Park and Perretts Field, St Mary’s and us at Poulter.

See all the winning art works at an exhibition in Sutton Library from 9 – 21 November 2026.

Final judging date to be confirmed.

Behind the scenes in 2026

Lots goes on behind the scenes to bring you this competition. It’s a real labour of love supported by friends groups all around the borough. We couldn’t have done this alone, we really do work as a team with Sutton’s community lead Dawn and her colleagues.

Thank you to everyone who came to paint, to our judges Rhys, Doug and Linda and to everyone who helped us on the day (special shout to our singer Ted, and to Sandra, Spike, Sophia, Charlie, Matt, Andy and Ed).

Steve, Spike, Nick, Matt and Charlie stand in front of a woodland behind Isobel who is crouching and smiling with arms spread wide. Spike is pulling a face.
Some of our amazing volunteers

Thanks to our funders

Sutton Landscape Artist Competition 2026 was funded by Sutton Council local fund, The Arts Society, Fidelity International and the Wandle Valley Forum. Our prizes were funded by the Carshalton Rotary Club and the show will be hosted in the Civic Centre Library.

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