Thanks for the reply
I have got something going by using a picture box (visible = false) which has the image loaded into it at design time and then drawing the picture box image into a panel at runtime.
VB Code:
Private Sub Panel1_Paint(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) Handles Panel1.Paint
'Draw the picture box image onto the panel image with a transparent background.
Dim g As Graphics = e.Graphics
Dim g_attribute As New System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageAttributes()
Dim destRect As New Rectangle(0, 0, PictureBox1.Image.Width, PictureBox1.Image.Height)
g_attribute.SetColorKey(Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 255), Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 255))
g.DrawImage(PictureBox1.Image, destRect, 0, 0, PictureBox1.Image.Width, PictureBox1.Image.Height, GraphicsUnit.Pixel, g_attribute)
End Sub