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.