This 11-year-old sells 'living paintings' for thousands of dollars each

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Eleven-year-old Elisabeth Anisimow has built up quite the college fund doing what she loves: painting.

The child art prodigy has raked in about $35,000 in art sales since she started selling her work at 7 years old, she tells CNBC Make It.

Much of that has come from her "living paintings" — she paints a living person along with a backdrop and props, in the style of famous impressionist works by the likes of Monet, Degas, Renoir and Rembrandt.

"You can move around but you still look like a painting," Anisimow tells CNBC. "That's why they're called living paintings. Because paintings don't move around."

The Los Angeles-based artist, who says she reads art books for fun, was inspired by the European tradition "tableaux vivant," which translates from French to "living pictures." Especially popular in the 19th century, it involved actors transforming themselves to represent scenes from art, literature or history.

To create a piece she can sell, a camera captures images of her painted subjects in different poses, which are printed onto canvases and framed. Anisimow, who converted her parents' garage into her studio, showcases her work at art galleries, festivals, charity events and fundraisers.

Anisimow sold one of her first living paintings — of a girl carrying a basket of apples — when she was just 9. "It was for quite a high price, but it made me realize that I can do this, something that I really like, and still get paid for it," she says.

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