Little Yellow Digger illustrator Alan Gilderdale remembered in new exhibition

Betty and Alan Gilderdale's son Peter Gilderdale continues his parents' legacy with exhibitions and additions to the Little Yellow Digger book series.

Works by the artist best known as the illustrator of book series The Little Yellow Digger is set to be displayed at Whanganui’s Lockett Gallery.

Alan Gilderdale, a former Whanganui resident, illustrated the now iconic books which were written by his wife Betty Gilderdale and published in 1992.

The couple went on to make four more books in the series which has now sold over 400,000 copies.

Since Alan Gilderdale’s death in 2013, followed by Betty Gilderdale’s in 2021, his son Peter Gilderdale has been dedicated to displaying his other work which was eclipsed by the success of The Little Yellow Digger.

“For neither of them it was their main professional thing, my mother was an expert of children’s literature but she was really an academic, and Dad was a serious artist, but both of them now are better known for the Little Yellow Digger,” Peter Gilderdale said.

Alan Gilderdale was born in York, England, in 1924 and later studied at London University’s Slade School of Art, where he was their youngest student.

In 1967 the Gilderdale family moved to Whanganui where Alan Gilderdale took a teaching position with the Quaker’s Friends' School.

Peter Gilderdale said his father, although a talented artist, decided to make a living from teaching to avoid financial needs dictating his artistry.

“He taught mainly so he wasn’t dependent on what the art market wanted him to paint. He just wanted to do his own thing.

“He wanted to be an artist on his own terms,” Peter Gilderdale said.

Alan Gilderdale was an artist throughout his life but primarily recognised for his illustration of The Little Yellow Digger.

The Friends' School closed only two years later and the family moved to Auckland where Alan Gilderdale held positions at Ardmore Teachers College, the Kindergarten Teachers College and the Auckland Technical Institute (now AUT), and Betty Gilderdale worked at North Shore Teachers College.

It wasn’t until the couple was retired that The Little Yellow Digger came into their lives, and the series ended up taking up a lot of the couple’s time.

Each book took Alan Gilderdale around six months to illustrate.

Although Alan Gilderdale was an artist throughout his life, he rarely displayed his work.

“He was probably the world’s worst self-promoter,” Peter Gilderdale said.

Following his death, a large exhibition of Alan Gilderdale’s work was displayed at Northart Gallery in Auckland.

“We have all this work of his and it’s nice to get some of it shown,” Peter Gilderdale said.

He recognised the significance of The Little Yellow Digger series in New Zealand and has continued his parents' legacy by writing an additional five books in the series alongside illustrator Fifi Colston.

The most recent book in the series, The Little Yellow Digger and the Helicopter, was published in November 2024.

“It’s intergenerational. There’s now a generation of parents who grew up with that book and now love sharing it with their children,” he said.

“For me it’s been about just trying to keep that alive.”

The exhibition of Alan Gilderdale’s work will feature some Little Yellow Digger art but also art he created throughout his life.

“It has a good sense of the trajectory of his art because he was always moving, he was always trying to move himself on.”

Peter Gilderdale put particular emphasis on his other art as he received little recognition for it in his life.

“I like to not take away from the digger but get a more balanced understanding of Dad’s, contribution to New Zealand culture through his art.”

The Alan Gilderdale Mid Century Paintings and Prints exhibition will open at Whanganui’s Lockett Gallery on Friday, March 21 at 5.30pm.

Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.