Vista - Windows programming and image manipulation in Powershell question

I'm trying to do a little Windows programming through Powershell. I can manipulate some aspects of a window, e.g., set the icon or BackGroundColor:
this works:
$form = New-Object Windows.Forms.Form
this works:
$icon = "C:\CDROMS\ICO\wow-1.ico"
this works:
$form.icon = $icon
this works:
$form.BackGroundColor = "Red"
But I am not able to set a background image.
Presumably this would work:
$form.BackGroundImage = $image
But unfortunately I am never able to reach that point.
This does not work; "no appropriate constructor" error:
$image1 = New-Object System.Drawing.Bitmap
This does not work; "no appropriate constructor" error:
$image1 = New-Object System.Drawing.Image
This line executes ok...
$image1 = Get-Content C:\textures\free-textures3tn.jpg
but...
...when you follow it with...
$form.BackGroundImage = $image1
you get the "Cannot convert System.Object[] to System.Drawing.Image" error

So my question posed broadly is, how can I use a background image on a form in Powershell? And more narrowly, how can I make Powershell accept an image as the value of $image, so that I can execute $form.BackGroundImage = $image?
Here's my sample program. It just creates a Windows form with a couple of buttons that launch scripts named startworst.ps1 and stopworst.ps1 respectively:

#Windows programming using Powershell example, WoW.ps1
Set-PSDebug-Trace 0 -Strict
[string]$b1="startworst.ps1"
[string]$b2="stopworst.ps1"
function Get-OkCancel
{
param ($question="Start or Stop only the worst CPU-hogging services.")
function load-assembly {
param([string] $assemblyName)
# Our assembly name shortcuts
$assemblyMappings= (
("forms", "System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"),
("drawing", "System.Drawing, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a")
)
# List the assembly shortcuts we support
if(-not$assemblyName)
{
"Please specify an assembly name. Supported assemblies are: "foreach($assemblyin$assemblyMappings) { $assembly[0] }
return
}
# Load the assembly they request
# This fails with an error message if this specific assembly version can't
# be loaded.
foreach($assemblyin$assemblyMappings)
{
if($assemblyName-eq$assembly[0])
{
[void] [Reflection.Assembly]::Load($assembly[1])
}
}
}
# end of function Load-Assembly
load-assembly "forms"
load-assembly "drawing"
function point ($x,$y)
{
New-Object Drawing.Point $x,$y
}
$form=New-Object Windows.Forms.Form
$icon="C:\CDROMS\ICO\wow-1.ico"
########################
### $image = ???????????
########################
$form.Icon =$icon
$form.Text ="WoWready"
$form.Size = point 462 98
########################################
### $form.BackGroundImage = ????????????
########################################
$label=New-Object Windows.Forms.Label
$label.Text =$question
$label.Location = point 110 10
$label.Size = point 250 50
$label.Anchor="top"
$ok=New-Object Windows.Forms.Button
$ok.text="Start"
$ok.Location = point 10 10
$ok.Anchor="top,left"
$ok.add_click({
Invoke-Expression$b1
})
$cancel=New-Object Windows.Forms.Button
$cancel.text="Stop"
$cancel.Location = point 360 10
$cancel.Anchor="top,right"
$cancel.add_click({
Invoke-Expression$b2
})
$form.controls.addRange(($label,$ok,$cancel))
$form.Add_Shown({$form.Activate()})
$form.ShowDialog()
}
# End of function Get-OKCancel
get-okCancel
#end of Windows programming using Powershell example, WoW.ps1