A man experienced an emotional reunion with his late father's artwork when he discovered an impressionist painting that had been stored away at Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery for decades. The painting, titled "Café Scene" by Birkenhead artist Geoff Yeomans, was purchased by the gallery in the 1950s but had remained hidden in the museum's storage facility in recent years.

Jason Yeomans, the artist's son, rediscovered the painting last year while attempting to track down his father's artistic legacy. "He had a whole series of pictures in the 1950s from when he was an art student in Liverpool, and they're impressionistic scenes of Merseyside," Jason explained. "Some are in the Williamson gallery in Birkenhead. There's a beautiful one in Runcorn town hall which is called the Three Bridges, which I've seen a couple of times."

The artwork depicts a fine summer's day on New Brighton beach and was feared lost before its rediscovery. Jason inherited some of his father's early works and decided to contact the Walker Art Gallery's curator to locate additional pieces. "Last year I got in touch with the curator of the Walker Art Gallery and we went down to see this Café Scene," he said.

Geoff Yeomans grew up in Birkenhead and attended the Liverpool College of Art, the same institution where Beatles member John Lennon famously met his first wife Cynthia Powell and friend Stuart Sutcliffe, the Beatles' original bass guitarist. He also studied at the Laird School of Art in his hometown before later moving to Warwickshire, where he became the deputy head of an art school in Nuneaton.

The grandfather of one passed away in 2021 at the age of 84, but his artistic legacy continues through works displayed at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead and at Runcorn Town Hall. Jason shared that his father's parents had wanted him to become an electrician, but art was his true passion. "I don't know what sparked that passion, but he ended up going to Liverpool Art College and he was invited to the Royal Academy. But he had national service so he had to join the air force, so he missed that opportunity," Jason recalled.

Throughout his career, Geoff Yeomans went through different artistic periods. "In the last few years of his life he ended up painting shipwrecks in Wales. He painted the U-boat that was positioned on the side of the River Mersey in Liverpool. He was obsessed with aging and the beauty of decay in the last few years of his life," Jason explained. "He always painted, even when he was working as an art teacher. He was always in the studio. Technically he was incredibly gifted."

For Jason, seeing "Café Scene" in person was particularly meaningful. "I had never seen the Café Scene in real life, but I'd seen images of it and I knew that the Walker Art Gallery had it, and I wondered why it was never up. So it was quite an emotional day going to see that, because I'd never seen it before," he said. "They're like children in a way, meeting things he's created that I'd never seen before."

Jason described his father as "a kind guy with a huge passion for art, and he passed that down to me." He noted the challenge of tracking down all of his father's works: "When I went to visit him sometimes I'd see photographs of paintings that I'd never seen before they were sold, and those are gone. It's almost impossible to find them all because some are lost. We don't know where they are now, so it's impossible to keep track of them all."

A spokesman for National Museums Liverpool, which operates the Walker Art Gallery, provided context about the painting's history and storage. "Café Scene has been displayed multiple times since its acquisition, including when Geoff participated in our artist at work series at the Walker in the late 1990s. We hosted him as he took up residency in the gallery to work across two weekends in October 1999," the spokesman said.

The museum explained that while the painting hasn't been on display recently, this situation is common for works in their collection. "This is not unusual for works in our collection, and it is currently under consideration for display opportunities in the next two years," the spokesman noted. "National Museums Liverpool cannot display its entire collection due to space limitations, conservation needs, and ongoing reassessment of how certain objects are displayed. Works in storage remain important records of artistic achievement and cultural history, carefully preserved, and remain available for research and special access requests."

Looking toward the future, the museum has ambitious plans for expanding access to their collection. "Looking ahead to our 150th anniversary in 2027, we're undertaking gallery refurbishments and rehangs, particularly of our Post-War and Contemporary collections," the spokesman said. "We're also committed to expanding our digital access program to make more of our collection available online, which would allow a global audience to view and learn about works not currently on display."

Despite the challenges, Jason remains hopeful that his father's work will eventually be featured in a Walker Art Gallery exhibition. "There's a huge amount of work in the Walker gallery and they only have a specific amount of wall space. They have Lucian Freud and other artists, and he's simply not high up on the list," he acknowledged. "People come and go, curators come and go, curators that never heard of him. If I can keep the painting in mind, one day it might go up."