Thistles, oil on canvas, 30 x 24, , Label attached to verso: Dallas Museum of Art 1955 Art Rental Collection. NOTE: Native of Albany, Texas, Nail earned degrees from Princeton University and New York University. He remained in New York for years, working as a television producer for the CBS network until 1979. After inheriting Texas property from a relative, which included an old jail that was no longer in use, Nail returned to Albany and opened the Old Jail Art Center with the help of his cousin, Texas modernist Bill Bomar, and the support of an enthusiastic city. Today, the OJAC is a public museum that boasts a permanent collection of over 2,000 works, hosts rotating exhibitions and events, receives around 12,000 visitors per year, and is an integral part of the Texas artist community. A lifelong collector, Nail’s extensive private collection is also housed at the OJAC. His own painting efforts are capably modernist and whimsical in nature, exemplified in this highly stylized representation of plant life.