The Good, the Bad and The Dudley - stab victim used art to cope after unprovoked attack

Jack Turley, aged 28, hosted the show, entitled The Good, the Bad and The Dudley at the Lamp Tavern Pub in High Street, Dudley.

His paintings range from portraits of Einstein and Steve Coogan to more controversial artworks of Margaret Thatcher and Rolf Harris, all created in his garage at home in Dudley.

The show came about after he struck up a conversation with the pub manager about his work – and was offered space to show it in the room above the pub.

Jack and a friend were stabbed by an acquaintance four years ago, with the attacker, a drug dealer named Sean Davies jailed for seven years as a result.

Jack was left with a tremor and his distinctive brushstroke was developed to compensate for it.

Family members say the assault badly affected Jack's confidence.

Before the attack he was ion punk band called The Fight, with his sister that toured the US attached to the MCA music label.

However since the attack he has taken a step back from performing to concentrate on his art. He has now converted the garage of his family home into a studio.

Jack's mother, Maria Turley said: "He was in the QE hospital for three weeks. It completely altered his character and he lost a lot of confidence.

"He completely threw himself into his artwork and that is how he coped.

"Things changed after Jack was attacked, and although he still does a bit of music painting is his main focus now.

"I am so proud of him for doing what he has done. It is tremendous the artistic talent that he has as neither me or his father is particularly artistic. He has always had this spark, right back to when he was a musician, this is just him expressing it in a different way."

Mrs Turley said: "The turnout was fantastic and we had so many people turn up to look at Jack's work. People really liked it."

One of Jack's first paintings was of Joe Mallen, the first man to own a champion Staffordshire Bull Terrier, from Cradley Heath.

Mrs Turley said: "It was a huge painting and it was one of Jack's first. I remember when he finished it and it just knocked everybody over. "That was when we realised what he could do when he actually finished these pictures. It was incredible.

The family used to do a lot of dog showing and we knew a lot of people in the dog world. Jack had grown up around this history and I think that was what inspired him to do it.

"Our friends absolutely loved it and they all wanted a copy. Jack gave away the original but I made prints and everybody bought one."

The Good, The Bad and The Dudley was the first time Jack had exhibited his work and Mrs Turley said he was surprised by the turnout.

She said: "Jack has really struggled with his confidence for a very long time. I think this exhibition went a long way to make him realise that people really were interested in his work.

"He didn't intend to sell his work whilst there but we had a lot of interest from people who did want to buy and that ended up changing his mind.

"He was very pleased and I think it helped quite a lot."