Those popular home propane tanks that look like colossal cold capsules or dry-docked mini subs can be unusual showcases for unique folk art creations.

Ranging in capacity from 250 gallons up to 500 gallons, residential propane tanks typically sport white finishes or are left unpainted because, y’know, dark gas tanks under bright sunlight and all. Not all propane tanks are so exposed, however, and their sizes and shape invite an unlimited range of creative solutions. One of the most popular, it would seem, is turning the tank into a Beatle-esque Yellow Submarine.

Flickr member jhk&alk captured one such psychedelic homage to the 1967 film at Shelter Cove, on California’s “Lost Coast”, in August of 2014.

Flickr member istartedi snapped a very similar rendition (could the same artist be responsible?) featuring the Yellow Submarine’s iconic Nowhere Man on a propane tank situated some 240 miles south in the North Bay area.

Kitten of the Sea

It’s yellow, and it’s a submarine, but even The Beatles in their most trip-tastic moments couldn’t come up with the “USS Catattack”. We’re SO glad Pinterest member Jacqueline Faust (theArtisticFarmer) did, however, because this cat-themed backyard propane tank isn’t just awesome, it’s… clawsome!

Melonia?

Do watermelons give you gas? This one does, but we’re sure there’s no connection with the re-purposed toilet planter right beside. Flickr member vinky captured the above charming outdoor scene, possibly hailing from the tiny town of Washington, CA, for posterity in May of 2012.

Then there’s this watermelon-themed propane tank, complete with a faux-frog “guardian” in case the local gas pirates (is there such a thing?) get any bright ideas.

Animal Tank Farm

This pair of porcine propane tanks from Orangeville, Ontario don’t appear to be functional, unless one considers their prime function to be pieces of intriguing folk art. Flickr member Will S posted the above image of the heavy metal petting zoo in April of 2015. While we wouldn’t even think about welding a propane tank, empty or not, some folks ARE qualified to do just that. If you’ve got an hour (yes, an hour) to spare, check out this video from BILLSTMAXX in which the photographer/welder/artist creates one of the gas tank piggies.

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Canned Heat 12 Folk Art Painted Residential Propane Tanks

Fuel me once, shame on you, fuel me twice and you’ll have to paint these huge storage tanks. You can bet the farm these creative tanks will fuel everybody.

The enormous fuel storage tanks populating the world’s many tank farms are usually painted, though not creatively. White is the preferred color: you don’t want a tank filled with huge quantities of flammable fuel to heat up on sunny summer days. Canvases so big and blank are tempting templates for artists, however, and a single artistically tinted tank can transform the mood of an entire tank farm. Take this 10.6 million liter capacity tank at Terminal NZ’s Mount Maunganui storage facility at the Port of Tauranga, spectacularly photographed by Flickr member Paul Oellermann (Paulos75) in July of 2013.

The tank was painted by Cut Collective, an Auckland-based commercial art studio. The 15m (50ft) tall by 30m (100ft) wide mural took four days and nights to complete and required over 200 spray cans of paint. The mural’s theme “represents youth and the idea of energy” according to Ross Liew of Cut Collective.

His & Hers

Flyover country just got a lot happier, though California isn’t exactly in “flyover” territory unless you happen to be, er, flying over it. The point (and we do have one) is that someone, some when, for some reason decided it would be a good idea to paint his & hers smiley faces atop two fuel storage tanks at a tank farm situated between Long Beach and Torrance airport. Another question… why is the male smiley grinning so widely while his lady companion appears much more reserved? Flickr member Rosanne James (rosanne_j) snapped the pie-faced pair – from the air, obviously – in the fall of 2011.

Pay The Bill

According to Flickr member and photographer Allen Forrest (AL904), tour boats ply the Cape Fear river near Wilmington, North Carolina.

We’re not sure how visually appealing such a tour would be, though at least the view improved once this fuel storage tank was painted with a beachfront scene of pelicans at play. Forrest captured the scene in June of 2016.

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Funky Farm More Creatively Painted Fuel Storage Tanks

Why scrap a decommissioned tank or self-propelled gun when it can easily be re-purposed as playground equipment, asked nobody ever. ALMOST nobody, that is.

This pair of colorful ex-Soviet Army tanks are permanently caught in the crossfire, so to speak, in front of the Great Patriotic War Museum in Kiev, capital of the Ukraine. The orange tank is a T-55, produced in the tens of thousands between the end of World War II and approximately 1980 while the blue tank appears to be a T-72, first produced in 1973. Flickr members Colin Bourgeois (Colin Edmond) and Paul Honig snapped the popular (with kids, especially) display in 2010.

Can you “spot” these former war machines? Somebody sure did – these images from Flickr members Jason Risley and plutogno date from July and November of 2013, respectively, shortly after the tanks received a cosmetic makeover.

Spit & Polish

You’d think Poland, where tanks battled time and time again during the Second World War, would be awash in disused tracked vehicles. Then again, rebuilding a nation’s economy requires plenty of scrap metal. Evidently the small village of Holubla in eastern Poland’s Masovian voivodship didn’t rate an actual tank so local playground builders had to fashion one of their own. Flickr member porrectus caught this sharp-looking playground fixture in June of 2012.

Tanks for the Memories

There’s no shortage of tanks in Israel after fighting major wars in 1948, 1956 and 1967. The multicolored tank at top is a T-34-85, likely captured from invading Egyptian Army forces during the Six Day War in 1967. The colorfully painted tank at top, snapped in 2005 by Flickr member Loupiote, has open hatches that allow children to enter the turret and even swivel the gun using a hand crank – Soviet engineering at its finest. The second image of two pastel-tinted self-propelled guns was taken in 2008 by Flickr member matull. One for the girls and one for the boys?

Ominous in Omsk

This smartly painted T-34 tank dominates a playground in the village of Chernoluchye, near the city of Omsk in southwestern Siberia. I triple-dog-dare anyone to touch their tongue to this old warrior’s skin on a wintery day. Flickr member Bron Pancerna captured the retired war machine in May of 2016.

Omsk became a major tank-producing center after Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in 1941. The city’s location straddling the Trans-Siberian Railroad was ideal for the distribution of new tanks to the front lines hundreds of miles to the west.

Not all tanks left Omsk, however – or perhaps, a few returned to their birthplace after being retired (re-tracked?). These hulking playground fixtures were snapped by Flickr member Stephen Powell (The Axarquian) in 2008 and by the website English Russia in 2012.

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War Games 12 Kid Friendly Park Playground Tanks

Due to their sizes and shapes, water tanks and towers lend themselves to artistic embellishment as these dozen creative examples refreshingly illustrate.

A waterpark? In the middle of MY Mojave Desert? It’s more likely than you think… or at least it was, before the Lake Dolores Waterpark (later the Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark and then the Discovery Waterpark) circled the drain for the final time in 2004. The water used to “power” the park(s) came from underground springs fed by the Mojave Aquifer and was stored in an enormous water tower shaped like – and painted to resemble – a Coca-Cola can.

While much of the park has been vandalized and scavenged for metal, the water tank can blame its current tattered & faded state on the Mojave’s blistering desert sun. Kudos to Flickr user Hans Proppe (shadowplay) and Imgur user loganbush for snapping the eerie and evocative images above.

Leggo My Necco

The circa-1927 New England Confectionery Company (NECCO, for short) building in Cambridge, MA is now occupied by offices of Swiss-based pharmaceutical firm Novartis, who graciously repainted the iconic Necco-wafer water tower in 1997. Flickr user Jill Robidoux (jylcat) snapped the tank on January 1st of 2003 and it’s a good thing she did: Novartis de-necco’d the tank in 2004 by painting it over in a boring-by-comparison pharma theme.

Behind The 8-Ball

The giant 8-ball water tower in Tipton, Missouri came and went like a Fast Eddie Felson pool shot in the dark… and then it came back again, this time to stay. According to the Jefferson City News Tribune, in 1968 the water tower was creatively dressed in a billiard-ball theme by its owners, the Fischer Pool Table company. The water tower was ceded to the city and painted all-white after Fischer closed in 1977 but Tiptonians wanted their landmark back so in 1999, the tower was restored to its previous 8-ball livery. Minnesota Fats is likely looking down and smiling.

Cone Job

The only paint on the Grand Central Water Tower in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the aqua blue corporate corporate logo near the top… anything else would be superfluous. The curious conical tower was built in 1997 and stands 40m (131.2 ft) tall, assuming it hasn’t already tipped over.

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Wet Look 12 More Cool Creative Water Tanks Towers

You might think twice about approaching a neighbor to turn down their loud music if it were emanating from the SoundTank, a mobile audio system by Berlin-based artist Nik Nowak. The imposing sound system was made using an old Japanese miniature tracked dumper as a base. Nowak added four tweeters, six 12-inch drivers, and three 8-inch subwoofers, in addition to other audio components, as well as a faceted exterior full of speakers.

‘Panzer’, which means tank in German, is capable of booming 4,000 watts of sound from its strategically designed array of speakers, and it has a hydraulic cover that flips up with the touch of a button. It’s also equipped with a drum machine, mixer and synthesizer.

Nowak focused on electronic music during his art studies, and composes music that consists only of low-pitched tones. With the SoundTank, the artist was looking to create an extra-loud system for outdoor performances that can handle a particular frequency spectrum. Performances at festivals and other venues showed off the tank’s capabilities.