getting an image from gtkdrawingarea

["Michael L. Gualtieri" <mikeg cs pitt edu>]

I'm writing an app that has several cairo animations inside gtkdrawingareas.  Unfortunately, everytime the window is covered and uncovered the expose events show the ugly grey background of the drawing area instead of my nice cairo surface.

I have noticed that GtkImages expose much quicker than a GtkDrawingArea.  Is there a way to convert the contents of a gtkdrawingarea to a GtkImage or other type that is easily drawable on the screen?

My idea is that I can draw an image of the drawing area while it is static, and then when I need to animate it, I will replace it back with the drawing area.

Thanks!