Help with getting button color.

Question

I'm trying to make a little paint program. i want to be able to click on a color button and then assign the color of that button to a variable Color brushColor.
funny thing is, when i compile this, it tells me that
C:\java\javaprograms\TryPainting.java:21: getBackground() in java.awt.Component cannot be applied to (java.awt.Button)
          brushColor = paintTheBrush(getBackground(source));
strange, getBackground is explicitly listed as a method that Button inherits from Component in the API.
any suggestions on a way to accomplish this?
thanks in advance,
jason
------code follows-------
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
//colored buttons of "paint"
class OilPaint extends Button{
Color brushColor = Color.white;
OilPaint(String label, Color color) {
     setLabel(label);
     setForeground(color);
     setBackground(color);
     addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
     Button source = (Button)e.getSource();
     brushColor = getBackground(source);
     public Color paintTheBrush(Color color) {
          return color;
// canvas to paint on - this isn't working yet. can't even get the
// setSize to work, though it does compile.
class Canvas extends JPanel{
     Canvas(){
          setBackground(Color.white);
          Dimension canSize = new Dimension(300,300);
          setSize(canSize);
// displays the lsit of color button choices in a small panel at bottom
// of window
class ColorChoices extends JPanel{
     ColorChoices() {
          setBackground(new Color(220,255,255));
          add(new OilPaint("paint",Color.blue));
          add(new OilPaint("paint",Color.red));
          add(new OilPaint("paint",Color.green));
          add(new OilPaint("paint",Color.white));
          add(new OilPaint("paint",Color.black));
//this is the main class of the program TryPainting.java
class TryPainting {
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          JFrame window = new JFrame();
          Toolkit toolkit = window.getToolkit();
          Dimension winSize=toolkit.getScreenSize();
          window.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          window.setBounds(5,5,winSize.width/2,winSize.height/2);
          Container content = window.getContentPane();
          content.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
          content.add("North",new Canvas());
          content.add("South",new ColorChoices());
          window.setVisible(true);

Answer 1

duh.. thanks man, that did the trick. i'm pretty new at this. i really appreciate the help. i got stuck thinking of the getBackground() as a function, rather than a method. this oop stuff is wacky weird fun!
jason