Hidden behind rows of trees, I am looking for the house of an author best known for her rhyme ‘Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy'. As I approach the house, I am expecting to see a shaggy-haired, boisterous little dog bounding up to the car to greet me, but I am not greeted by a dog of any kind, let alone a Hairy Maclary type dog at that. The closest thing is a little sausage dog door-stop at the front door.

Lynley Dodd is showing her original pieces of art at the Tauranga Art Gallery from March 5. Photo by Bruce Barnard.

'He's based on an imaginary dog, not a pet,” Dame Lynley Dodd explains to me.

'He's not any type of dog really; he has definitely evolved over the years.

'Hairy started off rather squat and not quite as elegant as he is now.

'It is hard to keep the consistency in style with the characters – I always have to refer to the previous book.”

Hairy was born from Lynley's hand in 1979 in Lower Hutt with the ground breaking children's book ‘Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy'.

Coming up to 30 years old, Hairy and his friends are on display at the Tauranga Art Gallery from March 5 to celebrate Lynley's illustrations in her first ever exhibition called ‘Lynley Dodd: A Retrospective'.

The exhibition features over 80 pieces spanning from Lynley's days at Elam, the University of Auckland's School of Fine Arts, up to her most recent book, ‘Hairy Maclary-Shoo'.

'It's really exciting, this is the first time I have seen all my work together. I have collected the pieces from the files and I had suggestions from each book what to use.”

The exhibit tells Lynley's story through her most recognisable and also some of her rarest works, such as her first pencil drawing of a nude model, laid out in chronological order.

Chronology is equally as important when it comes to putting together a children's book. For Lynley, over the years putting together the right combination of illustrations and words begins where every book should – at the start.

'I always think about what the first picture will be and the last picture. That is half the trouble. Reading a book to a child you want to make sure the words and pictures flow; you don't want it to be awkward and I found that with a lot of stories I used to read my daughter.

'The words have to be tossed off – children like the rhythm of rhyme, like school yard jingles.”

As Lynley shows me her drawings, laid out on a glass table in immaculate condition, the most striking feature is the attention to every brush and pencil stroke.

It is no wonder then that one of Lynley's books takes her up to a year from conception to production.

'I begin around March or April. I start taking ideas and sketches. About July, I do a little dummy book on that computer paper with holes down side, with a drawing for each page in pencil. The fine art work takes a while, before I put words around it and layout the page.”

With no pets around to inspire the rascally adventures of Hairy and his friends, I wonder how Lynley has managed to continually come up with new and amusing animal antics.

'I just draw from observational things I see, clippings in the paper, and items on the news.

'I find bits in the news about funny animals. Like a dog that got on a train and went for a ride was my latest book ‘Shoo'.

'I keep a book of clippings upstairs, and over the years my fans often send me funny clippings, funny pictures.”

I tell Lynely about the hilarious animal videos on YouTube, perhaps my adult version of children's animal stories, but even now the immortal words of ‘Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy' stick in my mind – a memory of sitting in a classroom as a child, reading the books aloud back to the teacher.

So what is it about Hairy that has young children still reading and enjoying Lynley's animal tales?

'I think children like animals because they have similar wily characteristics, wily and chaotic. My books are filled with chaos and all the things that children like.”

Lynley Dodd: A Retrospective is currently open until May 8 at the Tauranga Art Gallery, featuring works from Lynley's art school days, her early sketches and her recent illustrations.

Gallery director Penelope Jackson says exhibiting Lynley's work has been something she has wanted to do since she started at the gallery.

'Dame Lynley has understandably been cautious about allowing her work to be seen in public, due to its precious nature.

'The Tauranga Art Gallery is fortunate to showcase her work.”