Alastair Proud was born in Dublin in 1954. From a very early age Alastair developed a keen interest in nature and painting. Some of his wildlife paintings were shown on his favourite television programme when he was 11 years old.

Having completed school at St. Andrews College, Dublin, Alastair moved to Britain and went to art college in Wales. During this time Alastair developed a deep admiration for the welsh coastline and its island nature reserves. He was able to identify breeding sites and territories of a number of native UK species and has contributed to wildlife blogs and species records in the area ever since. Whilst at college Alastair began to gain a reputation as a wildlife artist, successfully submitting work which was selected for "The Society of Wildlife Artists" annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries London. Alastair’s work was admired by the then president of the society, Sir Peter Scott. Alastair became a full member of the society in 1985 and has continued to exhibit with them from that time onwards.

In 1990 Alastair was commissioned to paint a selection of birds of prey for the book "Birds of Prey of the British Isles" (David and Charles publishing, 1992). Such was the success of this book that a further book, "Wildfowl of the British Isles and North-west Europe", was commissioned and published the following year. Alastair’s paintings have also been included in “Drawn to the Forest”, published by The Wildlife Art Gallery in 2000 and “The Woodcock, artists impressions”, published by Swan Hill Press in 2006.

Alastair’s paintings can be found in private collections worldwide including overseas royalty.