Can someone suggest me a good starter painting kit (acrylic)?

Hi there, I looked through some online catalogues and the one I deal with here in Canada does not ship to the U.S., but you should be able to find the same kit at a good arts and crafts store near you. The kit I would suggest is Liquitex Complete Easel Set and contains a finished black wood table top easel, 8 x 2 ounce tubes of acrylic paint, 2 brushes, 4 ounces of gloss medium and varnish and a 12 inch by 16 inch canvas. This retails for $64.95 Canadian dollars. This is a good price for what you are getting. Liquitex is an excellent, artist quality acrylic that often sells for over $10.00 a tube in arts and craft stores. So, right there you've more than made up the value of the kit. Don't worry about getting sable brushes or really good quality brushes as acrylic paint is hard on brushes and you have to replace them frequently. You can buy inexpensive ones at Michaels when they're on sale or at WalMart. You can also get good canvas at Michaels for a good price. The only thing the kit doesn't have, that I consider an essential is gesso for priming the canvas. Even though the canvas you buy will say that it has been primed, I always find it best to apply two to three coats of gesso before I start to paint. Let one coat dry before applying another one. To save time, I usually apply gesso to a few canvases at a time so I always have one ready to go whenever I want to paint. Michaels always has coupons so make sure you apply the coupon to the most expensive item you are buying. You can sign up for their newsletter at michaels.com. Once you sign up, you will receive a newsletter with the sale items each week and the coupons applicable for that week. If you want to look at the web site of the company I buy from here in Canada, go to currys.com. You can get a lot of information from the site even though you won't be able to have them ship to you. Hope this information helps you! If you have any questions, just e-mail me and I'll get back to you with an answer. Enjoy painting, it's an addictive hobby, but you can really lose yourself in it and time pes far too quickly.