diff --git a/libs/gtkmm2ext/cairo_widget.cc b/libs/gtkmm2ext/cairo_widget.cc
index 12a27a1ed3..f542e13a03 100644
--- a/libs/gtkmm2ext/cairo_widget.cc
+++ b/libs/gtkmm2ext/cairo_widget.cc
@@ -42,6 +42,18 @@ void CairoWidget::set_source_rgb_a( cairo_t* cr, Gdk::Color col, float a)  //ToD
 	cairo_set_source_rgba(cr, r, g, b, a);
 }
 
+void CairoWidget::set_source_rgb_a( cairo_t* cr, Gtkmm2ext::Color col, float a)  //ToDo:  this one and the Canvas version should be in a shared file (?)
+{
+	int ir, ig, ib;
+	UINT_TO_RGB (col, &ir, &ig, &ib);
+
+	const float r = ir / 256.;
+	const float g = ig / 256.;
+	const float b = ib / 256.;
+
+	cairo_set_source_rgba(cr, r, g, b, a);
+}
+
 CairoWidget::CairoWidget ()
 	: _active_state (Gtkmm2ext::Off)
 	, _visual_state (Gtkmm2ext::NoVisualState)
diff --git a/libs/gtkmm2ext/gtkmm2ext/cairo_widget.h b/libs/gtkmm2ext/gtkmm2ext/cairo_widget.h
index 9af68d00e4..7efc333f36 100644
--- a/libs/gtkmm2ext/gtkmm2ext/cairo_widget.h
+++ b/libs/gtkmm2ext/gtkmm2ext/cairo_widget.h
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 #include "gtkmm2ext/visibility.h"
 #include "gtkmm2ext/cairo_canvas.h"
 #include "gtkmm2ext/cairo_theme.h"
+#include "gtkmm2ext/colors.h"
 #include "gtkmm2ext/widget_state.h"
 
 /** A parent class for widgets that are rendered using Cairo.
@@ -89,6 +90,7 @@ public:
 
 
 	static void set_source_rgb_a( cairo_t* cr, Gdk::Color, float a=1.0 );
+	static void set_source_rgb_a( cairo_t* cr, Gtkmm2ext::Color, float a=1.0 );
 
 	/* set_focus_handler() will cause all button-press events on any
 	   CairoWidget to invoke this slot/functor/function/method/callback.