Architecture of Painting by Errol Barron

January 28, 2026

BY Emily capdeville

Trained as an architect and practicing architecture until 2016, Errol Barron now works primarily as a painter. For many years he has taught at the Tulane School of Architecture and Built Environment and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He was awarded the Gold Medal by the Louisiana Architects Association and in 1995 the Gabriel Prize from the Western European Architecture Association. In the Spring of 2025, he received the inaugural Tulane School of Architecture and Built Environment Faculty Luminary Award. He is the author of five other books: Observation, New Orleans Observed, Roma Osservata, Tulane Observed and A Tradition of Serenity. He is a graduate of Tulane and Yale Universities, and his work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally since 1980.

His most recent book, The Architecture of Painting, reproduces more than 100 of his paintings and drawings along with an essay and statements from several of his exhibitions. Throughout his architectural and teaching careers, he stressed the importance of drawing from observation as a design tool and conversely, of analyzing the architectural elements of composition to enhance the understanding of a painting. Like the book, this exhibit does not provide a chronological survey of his art but uses a small sampling of his works to suggest ways in which architecture and painting reinforce one another to communicate the specific qualities of a time and place and the effects of light on form and landscape.