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