How do I add an image to a JButton

I think that your problem is in the location of the image. You shall place it in your source, and then use it like this:

  JButton button = new JButton();
  try {
    Image img = ImageIO.read(getClass().getResource("resources/water.bmp"));
    button.setIcon(new ImageIcon(img));
  } catch (Exception ex) {
    System.out.println(ex);
  }

In this example, it is assumed that image is in src/resources/ folder.