Janet Fish is an American painter known for her still life paintings, though she sometimes includes figures and landscapes. She was born in 1938 in Massachusetts and studied art at Smith College and Yale University. Fish is influenced by feminism and depicts everyday domestic objects in her richly colored paintings and prints. Her detailed realist style has been called photorealist, though she does not consider herself one. Fish's work is in major museums and she has won several fellowships.

1. Janet Fish

4. She is best known for her still life paintings, but also sometimes includes figures and landscapes in her work. Her richly colored paintings and prints are virtuoso performances of painting and printmaking.

5. Janet Fish, much like Georgia O'Keefe, knew from a young age that she wanted to be an artist.

6. After taking many sculpture classes, Janet found her calling through painting.

8. many of Fish's paintings are large, which is a different experience when viewed in person than a small still life, and has more of a "degree of difficulty" to paint. Her work has been called photorealist, but she says that she is not a photorealist painter “Painting for me has always been like opening a door to a darkroom and saying okay, I’m going to step in. I hope there’s afloor there.”

9. Inspiration From the late 1960's, Fish has been affected by feminist ideas, which arrived in a big way at this time. At that time, few women taught in college art departments, and few women artists were represented in museums and exhibitions. Now, there are many serious female artists, and more female art professors; there has been discussion about whether women have a different aesthetic approach than men, or even a different way of making sense of experience. Certainly women have affected contemporary artistic thinking, in the materials they use and their attitudes and viewpoints. Female association with domesticity is not quite as heavy a burden today, though our historical experience with household chores and food preparation has influenced our lives, and consequently the art we make. Our role of tending to the small details, while men make the serious decisions, has hopefully lessened; we have been good at details and immediate tasks because that role was assigned to us, not because it is necessarily our nature. Fish said that the still life genre offers the greatest possibility for painters to include both realism and abstraction; her intricate reflections delineate both of these paths

10. TITLE: Zinnias and Apple ARTIST: Janet Fish WORK DATE: 1995 CATEGORY: Prints MATERIALS: Woodcut SIZE: h: 24 x w: 18 in / h: 61 x w: 45.7 cm

11. Artist :Janet Fish Title: Honey jars Medium :oil on canvas Size :66.3 x 54.5 in. / 168.3 x 138.4 cm. Year: 1971

12. TITLE: Dragon Kite ARTIST: Janet Fish WORK DATE: 2007 MATERIALS: Oil on canvas SIZE: h: 40 x w: 50 in / h: 101.6 x w: 127 cm

13. JANET I. FISH (American, b. 1938). Skowhegan Water Glasses, 1975. Oil on canvas. 40 x 42 inches

14. Janet FishBalloons1999oil on canvas50 x 100 in.

15. Blue Kimono and Orange Poppies

18. Goldfish and Autumn Leaves

19. January Snow January snow

20. Monkey Business

21. Description & Analysis Fish's recent painting Balloons is another complex array of figure, landscape and still life, which she created by combining elements, rather than observing as an actual event. It consists of an outdoor celebration with food, balloons and children playing, and has an Impressionist feel in terms of the leisure and sunlight represented. Fish includes personal objects in her images, which offer an autobiographical element, such as a bouquet given to her present companion, painter Charles Parness, or items belonging to him, such as eyeglasses. Balloons1999oil on canvas50 x 100 in.