Still Life of Flowers, Shells and Insects (c. 1635). Artist: Balthasar van der Ast (1593/94-1657). Still Life of Flowers, Shells and Insects is a vintage fine art baroque floral painting featuring a bouquet of wildflowers and roses in a seashell vase with shells, a spider, bee, dragonfly, centipede and a grasshopper.About the Artist:Balthasar van der Ast was a Dutch Golden Age painter who specialized in still lifes of flowers, fruit and seashells. He is considered to be a pioneer in the genre of shell painting and his still lifes often contained insects and lizards.