This Kitchener, Ont., woman has been sketching a bird a day all year and her work is taking off

Meredith Blunt of Kitchener, Ont., has been drawing a bird every day this year, to focus more on her creativity and mental health.

Her drawings have become so popular online that she's now also taking commissions and feels it could become a future career.

Blunt's daily drawings are part of her personal annual challenges.

In previous years, these challenges have helped her recover from illnesses and the complications that followed.

This year, she's focusing more on her mental well-being. In her art, she blends her love for birds and her skill as an artist, using a mix of pencil, ink and watercolours.

Her first sketch in January was of an American goldfinch.

"I'm obsessed with birds anyway and I figured the numbers kind of match up. There are 310 unique species in the region and we have 365 days in the year, so I have wiggle room to duplicate favourites," Blunt told CBC News.

It takes her about 30 minutes to a couple of hours to sketch and colour the birds.

Picking the daily bird comes to her "in the moment," she said.

Blunt said one of the many positives coming out of this year's challenge is she discovered people wanted to buy her work. 

"To have these responses, and to have sold birds and see them go to people, and be able to talk to folks who want to buy them, I don't even have the words for it. It's gratitude and validation, and it's amazing," she said.

"I've made great new friends who just appreciate them so much."

'It's a little escape'

Blunt said drawing a bird every day has helped her take a break from her busy life. 

"It's positive, it's creative, it's just a little escape or a little vacation from whatever might be happening that day," Blunt told The Morning Edition.

"I can count on those 30 minutes or those 90 minutes to be peaceful and fun."

Blunt said she took a long break from art and the project has also helped her reconnect with her passion.

"I had my kids, have a husband and have a dog ... and art got pushed way past the back burner even." 

She said she also noticed her work has helped people who watch her sketches online have "a nice, little mental health break" as well.

Jazmine Tufford-Singh, a registered psychotherapist and art therapist in Kitchener, said art has many mental health benefits and can help people connect with one another.

"The practice of making art we know can be very calming and soothing for us, and those elements combined within the safety of the therapeutic relationship, a lot of healing can happen in that setting," Tufford-Singh told CBC News.

Tufford-Singh said doing a drawing every day, like Blunt does, can help keep you in the moment and slow down.

"It really can be a beautiful moment of pausing and quieting the world around us with colour, shape or the subject that we're drawing."

Already thinking about 2024

Even though Blunt is only halfway through 2023 year with her sketches, she's already thinking about what she'll do next year. But the public will have to wait to get full details.

Blunt's husband and son have also become involved in helping her prepare for next year's challenge.

"My husband and son are techies and they're helping me figure out website building, and YouTube channels and things like that."

Blunt did say her next endeavour will be her spin on an old childhood TV show that inspired her to draw and become an artist.