Your Cart is Empty
Travis J. Sylvester just turned 42 years old and has been married for 19 years. He has a wonderful wife, two awesome kids, and two little dogs.
Born in Salt Lake City, Travis loves the area and still calls it home. He loves what Utah has to offer as far as the mountains, desert, and countless lakes and streams. he can leave his home and be at 10,000 feet in elevation and far away from the crowds within an hour's drive.
He says, "My hobbies are just about anything fishing related, drawing, tying flies, riding my ATV, camping, shooting, working in my yard, or anything outside, photography, and working with computer graphics."
Artist's Comments:
I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. I recall entering a drawing contest in kindergarten, I believe I drew the cast of the Peanuts, complete with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, etc. and winning a ribbon or something. I continued drawing through school and always enjoyed sitting down with pencils and paper. I was recently reminded, my mom did not take exception to me expressing myself with oil pastels on the walls of my room while in my teens, in fact she encouraged it. Thanks for being supportive and understanding mom!
In high school, waaaay back in 1988-89, I was introduced to colored pencils by my art teacher Peggy Anderson. She was my favorite teacher and was and is an amazing watercolor artist. She could really see that working with color as opposed to pencil, graphite, or charcoal had really caught my attention, which at that time in my life, catching my attention was tough for anyone to do.
I continued drawing here and there for a while after school, but picked it up again around 1997. I started drawing some abstract, surreal, and actually kind of weird stuff when I look back at it. I enjoyed being creative and letting what happens happen when it came to my artwork. I had some of my work in galleries in the Salt Lake area as well as a friend's gallery in Brentwood, CA. I sold a couple of pieces here in Salt Lake, but got caught up in being a new dad, work, and everything else that happens when your in your 30's and put the pencils away.
In 2009, I felt like I really needed to draw again. It had been about a ten years since I had drawn anything. During those ten years, I had spent a lot of time outdoors. I had gotten reacquainted with nature, fishing and doing the things I did as a kid. I figured it was a perfect time to mesh two things that I enjoy doing.
Since November of 2009, I have completed 32 new drawings, five of which have been commissioned. In 2010, I entered one of them, “Bonneville Cutthroat” into the Utah State Fair and won two honorable mention ribbons on it. In 2011, I entered "Rainbow Reflections" and won first place in it's category. In 2012, I entered "Whiplash" and "Above The Rim" into the Salt Lake County Fair. "Whiplash" won a "Sweepstakes" ribbon as well as a first place ribbon, and "Above The Rim" won a High Blue ribbon.
In 2012, I also entered "Smith River Gold" into the Utah State Fair and won a 5th place ribbon in the professional category.
My work was featured in the 2013 spring edition of Fly Rod & Reel Magazine and "Brown Sugar" was selected to be on the cover of Southern Trout Magazine summer of 2013. I have been loving the trout drawings, I feel like each one is getting better and I am always looking for the next project as well as the next chapter.