ooh! here's a 1983 chinese ink painting by tan swie hian called hummingbirds racing.

and in it i found the very image of the hummingbird i've been looking for - and how perfect - because it was painted by the same man from whom i got the phrase in the first place. even better, he elaborates on the emblem of the hummingbird:

“蜂雀在我眼中，是自由心的另一个美妙象征...其为形也，鸟之镜花水月，蜂之海市蜃楼，为一不受制于时间空间，住于介于出入于反常正常超常三界之生命体。

"To me, the hummingbird is a fine symbol for the free mind. Its form, the udakacandra of birds and the mirage of bees. It is a living being which transcends time and space, lives in and travels freely between the worlds of the normal, the abnormal and the supernormal.

and an oil: the dimension of hummingbirds