Janet Fish was born in Boston in 1938 and raised on the island of Bermuda. She studied at Smith College and the Art Students League in New York City and received her master of fine art degree from Yale School of Art in 1963. While at Yale, Fish attended the Skowhegan Summer School in Maine. She concentrated on still lifes, with a focus on the effects of light and reflection on familiar subjects. In 1982, Fish was given her first solo museum exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum. Since then, she has received numerous awards and was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1994. Fish's work is represented in numerous public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Dallas Museum of Art.
