Faster control drawing over background image

Hi. I am developing a .net based touch screen control system for a very high spec race car transporter/motorhome. Because of the location of ths system, the background cannot be just the normal control colour, but is a gradual gradient including team logo etc etc... However, I desperately need to know if there is a way to speed up the drawing of normal controls (buttons dials etc) when using a background image. When each individual form appears on the screen, it takes it a couple of seconds to draw all the components ot the form. Not really acceptable. Remove the BGimage, and the drawing is sub half a second. The image is only 76k per form, and the size seems to make no difference to it, but it is full screen. Any GDI+ / Forms gurus out there that can help me with this problem, it is marring an otherwise very nice system!!! :-) Many thanks in advance Paul.