Creating a 'background'

[Matthew Jones]

I want to set a 'background' image for a more or less menu system I am working on.
I have a bunch of classes that extend java.awt.Panel, and I want to set backgrounds for each of these.
I know I can paint the screen, and any components I add (Checkboxes, Labels, etc.) will 'paint' over the painted image, the problem I have, is getting the image.
I know there is a getImage() method in java.awt.Applet, and I can use that to get the image and pass to the extended Panels, but I would like to do as much of the 'work' in the Panels as possible, rather than the Applet.
Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions, on what I can do to accomplish this??

[Anonymous]

You can use Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().createImage().