He's been a Scotland Yard detective, facing criminals. He's travelled the world, visiting exotic places.

But what's got 75-year-old Bernard Major anxious is an opening reception for his art show this Friday evening.

His exhibit Home and Abroad has an opening reception 7-8:30 p.m.

He's nervous about the show.

"I feel very conspicuous" at events like this, he confessed.

Art is such a personal creation that it's understandable when an artist's nerves start to get the better of him.

His exhibit is one of the largest put on by the Langley Arts Council through its Art in Found Spaces project.

The council seeks out public sites that can play host to art shows and art for such shows expose more and more people to works of art.

For this show, the council's president Rosemary Wallace knew Major from when his work was exhibited in the former West Wind Gallery and asked him to exhibit.

There's a lot to see since he has art show space on the second and fourth floors of the Langley Township Civic Facility, 20338 65th Ave.

"I've been painting all my life," Major explained. "I got really serious when I retired."

His artistic life is a far cry from his work life.

The British-born Major had gone from being a police office in England before emigrating to Canada in 1969. When he lived in the British Properties, he had a private investigation agency but upon retirement, wanted some land to raise and show dogs. He moved to South Langley in 1986.

But Major, who is also a musician, doesn't find his pull towards the arts unusual.

"I think we all have got a little artist in there," he said. "Art is a form of escape. You can really get away from the day to day reality. It's incredibly healing and therapeutic. Very, very few other things will actually do that."

And he's the eponymous head of a group that gathers in his barn/art studio one day each week to paint - the group known as the Artists of Bernie's Barn.

Major said being able to paint and socialize all day with friends proves his point about the power of art.

"It's almost like group therapy," he commented.

For some people, art transports them to other parts of the world. For Major, his art reflects his time visiting other parts of the world. He's recently returned from China.

"I just love travelling," he said. "It's just that love of seeing different places."

Major said it's the difference between knowing that there are places like the Great Wall of China and walking there and getting that visceral experience.

Works from his travels abroad will be part of the exhibit that runs until Feb. 28 and can be viewed whenever the Civic Facility building is open.

The art display will showcase the array of subjects that catch his eye, whether it's people in an exotic bazaar, a landscape or an interesting boat.

"I know inside it's a good subject," he replies when asked how he decides on a painting subject. "There's something in it that somehow resonates."

Major said he ends up with hundreds of images, in photos and inside his mind, that beg to be turned into paintings.

"The trouble is it's a bit of an exercise in frustration because you never can accomplish what you want to do."